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Stephen Mack
I'm a resident of Silicon Valley, father of two small children, the Director of TiVoCast Operations for TiVo (10 years now), and I care about things.
Happy 233rd birthday, America! You don't look look a day over 180.
Geoff Schultz, chaz2b, Rodfather and Anne Bouey liked this
Fallacy of the excluded middle - http://www.zeigen.com/blog...
Davis Freeberg and Anne Bouey liked this
From the post: "So many times we believe that there are only two choices, that something is either good or bad, and there is nothing in between. As Hamlet said in Act II, scene 2, 'There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.'"
- Stephen Mack
Just by saying the word "realtime" I can be featured on the FF blog! Hello world! REAL TIME REAL TIME REAL TIME
John D Reasor, Kol Tregaskes, Nir Ben Yona and 13 other people liked this
Well played, Stephen.
- Louis Gray
Forgot the link: http://blog.friendfeed.com/2009...
- Stephen Mack
I want my updates in imaginary time.
- Andy Dustman
Imaginary time is better than bullet time.
- Stephen Mack
Yes but bullet time sounds cooooooooler.
- Bryan
Awesome!
- Rachel Lea Fox
via iPhone
Lunch time > imaginary time > bullet time > real time -- and now I just told everyone reading the FF blog that I'm about to eat lunch.
- Stephen Mack
Stephen is infected by the real time!
- Rachel Lea Fox
via iPhone
Rachel, you're right, and the cure is MORE REAL TIME.
- Stephen Mack
I may be abusing the use of the world real-time. Maybe.
- Stephen Mack
Stephen: What about nap-time?
- Brian Johns
I love nap-time. That's my second favorite, after El Camino Real time.
- Stephen Mack
All right -- I littered 20 or so threads with inappropriate use of the word "real time" but I'm now moving on. Probably garnered some hides and blocks, but it was worth it.
- Stephen Mack
What's this you mention about "realtime" ? (shameless search-jack)
- Rick Cogley
For English to evolve, grammarians must die - http://www.zeigen.com/blog...
Kamilah Gill, Lora Lufark, Anne Bouey and 25 other people liked this
From my post: "Starting today, I resolve to never make another spelling or grammar flame. For informal forums, I may gently encourage others to stop making such corrections as well."
- Stephen Mack
Sweet. As I'm a terrible speller. And generally have bad grammer (and yes I'm misspelling that on purpose. grammar just doesn't seem right to me. Let the evolution begin). :)
- Dario Gomez
Dario, I don't think I've ever seen you misspell a word prior to that, so you're far from a terrible speller. I agree "grammar" looks weird. There aren't nearly as many words ending in -ar in English as -er. Kelsey Grammer also has a lot to answer for. But I certainly can get behind your proposal that "grammer" should be a valid substitute for "grammar" from now on. For English to evolve we'll also need to get the spell checks on board.
- Stephen Mack
I don't think I have the patients for this.
- Brian Johns
If by 'evolve' you mean 'dumb down for the un- and miseducated', I'll take an unevolved English any day of the weak.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Certainly took me a while to get past that point of view, Akiva. But to take the first example of my post, why do we put up with irregularities? Why make it so hard for new learners and non-native speakers to learn? WHY do you feel the way you feel beyond wanting others to have to go through the hurdles you went through?
- Stephen Mack
That's precisely it, though, Stephen. Flattening the learning curve doesn't make it better and it isn't that I want people to have to go through what I went through: this isn't about me; it's about being educated. Taking this to its horrifying conclusion, you might as well champion for the dismissal of complex words. Why use 'extrapolate' instead of 'explain' or 'loathe' instead of...
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- Akiva Moskovitz
If English is so hard to learn, why do I hear many Polish adults speaking better English here in the UK than British children in schools? Simply because the kids aren't being taught well enough and the resources are too few and too late. The problem lies within the education, not the language itself.
- Charlotte {charley} M
Akiva, I'm not advocating the removal of words. I'm advocating simpler spelling -- similar to Benjamin Franklin's original proposal, which I'll link in separately. English evolves over time whether you want it to or not ("doughnut" to "donut" in American English, for example). Is someone "less educated" for wanting spelling to be simpler, so that learners can acquire the language faster? I don't want to rob the language of anything except pointless irregularity.
- Stephen Mack
I dated a linguistics major once who was pretty adamant about language needing to be allowed to evolve, and was NOT the type to constantly correct others. However, I think that there's a difference between "letting grammarians die" and having them "loosen up" (losen up? lol) a bit. The bigger question, I think, is how organic we let the evolution be. For example, if we let lolcats-speak gain too much inflooense [sic], we've let the reigns go too much.
- George Saj
Charlotte, English is objectively more irregular than, say, Spanish or Polish, and is therefore harder to learn. Of course non-native speakers learn English successfully all the time. But for those who learned several languages, ask them which was easier to learn. English has notably higher barriers than many languages because of the pervasive irregularities. We could reduce the amount of time by simplifying, that's all I'm saying.
- Stephen Mack
Re: "Bad spelling as a signifier for low intelligence is a deeply-ingrained bias in our culture", It's interesting because my dad is an intellectual, but a terrible speller - [anecdotally] it seems has more to do with personality than actual intelligence. He just has other people (i.e. my mom, a grammarian) proof-read anything he sends out there. That said, in this age of...
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- George Saj
I have to go with Akiva on this one. English is hard to learn? Practice. When you practice something it gets "easier" not because the nature if the thing changes but that your capacity to do thing has increased.
- Josh Haley
via iPhone
English seems to have done OK despite the grammarians: It's use continues to embiggen.
- Andy Dustman
Personally I like my education/intelligence to shine through. Although, I do type "slang" in conversational posts.
- MicahBear78
Let's look at what rational reason there is to NOT reform and and simplify English spelling. If you've spent any time teaching reading to a young child you know how many irregularities there are. It adds complexity and difficulty, so there are costs, but with what benefit? We have: 1. Tradition. "But we've always spelled things this irregularly." Not true, and not rational. Spelling in...
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- Stephen Mack
Perfect case in point: Josh's comment. FF helpfully marks it as coming from the iPhone. His two typos ("if" instead of "of" and the missing "that") are clearly artifacts of that communication device. But did I understand him? Perfectly (even if I disagree). Why get hung up on that? As long as communication was achieved, that's my new standard of acceptance. Josh is correct that practice...
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- Stephen Mack
And Andy, I love love love that comment.
- Stephen Mack
Perhaps the reason you understood Josh's comment despite the errors is because of context. If you were reading it centuries later in isolation there would be room for doubt as to what he really meant.
- Trish Haley
Trish, true, but let centuries go by and suddenly you're reading Chaucer: "Whan that Aprille, with hise shoures soote / The droghte of March hath perced to the roote" (http://www.canterburytales.org/canterb...) What a perfect illustration of how spelling changes over time. ("When April with its showers sweet / has pierced the drought of March to the root")
- Stephen Mack
Now we have to take into account accents and pronunciations to decipher that.
- Trish Haley
Chaucer wasn't just about spelling differences. Take it down the absolute basics and you have phonics, blending the sounds to make a full pronunciation of that word. If simplifying words is the way forward, then the phonics are changed and in turn, so is the word.
- Charlotte {charley} M
Charlotte, I agree -- and think that's a good thing, with many advantages, and no disadvantages beyond "that's the way we've done it for a while now."
- Stephen Mack
A friend with a linguistics background who uses it practically in his day-to-day life explained the ebb and flow of language (which is mostly an unplanned phenomenon) like this: Language trends toward simplicity if sufficient comprehension is conserved. It moves toward more complexity when ambiguity interferes too greatly. So my theory is there will always be grammarians and anti-grammarians, it's just that their number and degree of influence will also ebb and flow.
- Micah Wittman
Sorry but if I have to trust a Ste[ph|v]en on this, I'm going to trust Pinker over Mack.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Also, well put, Micah.
- Akiva Moskovitz
No one show this thread to Mignon.
- Matthew DeVries
I haven't blogged much, so I keep going to this well, but dammit, read my post! http://dariusmdev.wordpress.com/2009...
- Matthew DeVries
English is still evolving and the UKians will continue blaming the Yanks for ruining the language even tho they themselves were mutilating it long before we existed. :)
- Dead Silence
Sounds like you're asking for intelligent design here. You can't get rid of grammarians if you want evolution to work. They're the only natural predators irregularities have.
- Bruce Lewis
via fftogo
Wow, Bruce. That's just... wow. You're comparing people who care about the English language with people who don't believe in evolution because of a belief in a creator deity? That's such a wild comparison that my monitors just degaussed themselves. And they're LCD monitors. Are you going to lump mathematicians in here as well? They're bigger sticklers than grammarians are.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Spellings I'm not too bothered about, but grammar is an essential part of the written form. Without it the entire meaning of prose gets screwed up. Still, regardless of this and irrespective of how many rules you put into place, a language will change and evolve along with the people that speak it. Imagine how things will change once we take to the stars.
- alphaxion
Akiva, Pinker is a nativist -- very very far from a prescriptivist. He describes the evolutionary models of language in great detail. I cannot recall him writing about spelling reform one way or the other. How is he relevant to this discussion?
- Stephen Mack
Wait, I'm proposing unnatural predation on irregularities! Brain hurts, must consider.
- Stephen Mack
I don't see spelling as independent of syntax.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Fine, Akiva, so let's take a few spelling examples. Suppose I'm elected supreme dictator of the universe, and I issue a decree that says from now on, all the "-ight" words in English that rhyme with "night" (might, right, sight, etc.) are to be spelled "-ite" instead. ADVANTAGES: Consistency, ease of learning, fewer letters to type. DISADVANTAGES: Spell checkers, dictionaries,...
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- Stephen Mack
Akiva, no. I'm being a stickler about English usage myself. The word "evolve" is being misused here.
- Bruce Lewis
via fftogo
Bruce, ah, sorry. Totally went right over my head.
- Akiva Moskovitz
Bruce, I disagree. The "doughnut" to "donut" change is a perfect example of evolution in action. Look at that Chaucer excerpt earlier. All of the changes follow an evolutionary model -- things get simpler over time, due to survival of the fittest. Even Pinker, evoked earlier, describes the evolutionary model of language change similar to what we're discussing here.
- Stephen Mack
Matthew, I read your post but I'm too dense to see the point you're making, sorry.
- Stephen Mack
I find it ironic that Akiva misused weak when he meant week. :)
- Alex Scoble
Stephen, sorry, but this discussion is slowly edging its way off the rails. The hypothetical you invoke is just way too unlikely to even be worth addressing, if you ask me. I might as well say, 'what if as the supreme dictator of the universe, I made red into blue'?
- Akiva Moskovitz
@Bruce the collectivised mutations of something (language in this case) that eventually give rise to the formation of a distinct and new entity. The changes to our languages are organic in nature and certainly paralelle that of species in the natural world via many different evolutionary pressures (technology, interbreeding, random mutations as a result of generational change....)
- alphaxion
There's no advantage to turning red into blue. There are numerous advantages to simplifying and regularizing spelling. My main point is to get you to consider WHY you want spelling to stay the same illogical way it is now, when it has no advantages beyond preserving (a fairly recent, in the scale of things) tradition.
- Stephen Mack
Stephen, evolution creates as many irregularities as it eliminates. Why are there two correct spellings of harassment, for example. English will only get simpler by deliberate planning.
- Bruce Lewis
via fftogo
I do think the prescriptivists are fighting a futile war. But spelling reform is just another form of prescriptivism. I say, tolerate diversity and let natural selection hone orthography. If more people favor nite over night or the single word loose instead of the two words loose/lose, then that's the way the language will go. Nothing you or I can do is going to stop it.
- Victor Ganata
Stephen, the point is, you can't regulate either spelling nor grammar. They can and will change over time.
- alphaxion
(Gah, three excellent comments within seconds of each other, and I want to respond to all three. Want threaded comments.)
- Stephen Mack
Too much pretty would never have happened in Stephen's world.
- Matthew DeVries
Threaded comments are hideous. Take the time, read slow and read it all. Compose your thoughts and say what you need to. You have no where important to be.
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew, I'm missing the "too much pretty" reference.
- Stephen Mack
(Pounces, claws extended, on the either/nor pairing in alphaxion's comment.). :-)
- Bruce Lewis
via fftogo
Well Eye'd explane it beter, but sea, yu've removed all werds I need to make my point. I'm left with nuthing to rephyne my thawts.
- Matthew DeVries
Let me be clear: The dictator example is a hypothetical, and I'm not actually advocating we force wholesale spelling reform down anyone's throat. Instead, I'm asking people to examine their biases and beliefs. Previously I was a spelling snob. I made spelling flames. Despite believing in the abstract that I was a descriptionist, I was actually behaving as a prescriptivist. However, in...
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- Stephen Mack
It's a legacy language, like Windows. It has to maintain backwards compatibility. People with your ideas tried that Esperanto movement way back when, because to get to where you want to be requires a full rebuild from the kernel up. Unfortunately language isn't an if you build it they will come sort of thing, so how bout we just leave it as it and let it evolve like it's supposed to,...
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- Matthew DeVries
For English spelling reform, we may have to look to other languages to lead the way. Filipino, the official language of the Philippines (which is really just a standardized dialect of Tagalog) basically incorporates tons of English words, but has changed the orthography to match the conventions of written Filipino, which is close to being completely phonetic. I understand Japanese kind...
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- Victor Ganata
Matthew, the Chaucer excerpt refutes the backwards-compatibility notion. I find Esperanto ridiculous, because it was mandated, not evolved. Almost no one wants to learn a whole new language just because they find English too complex or irregular. I agree with the rest of your comment. You illustrate the point I'm making perfectly. Before, I was acting as an agent resisting language...
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- Stephen Mack
My point, though, is that there have never been any brakes, and anyone who thinks otherwise is fooling themselves.
- Victor Ganata
Victor, we've done that already and continue to every day/year.
- Matthew DeVries
Stephen, the Chaucer excerpt doesn't refute anything at all. It can't. It's inanimate, and kind of meta.
- Matthew DeVries
It shows that language changes and doesn't have to be backwards-compatible.
- Stephen Mack
Matthew, true. I just think it'll be more dramatic when we start borrowing back from languages that are completely outside the Indo-European family of languages.
- Victor Ganata
Victor: English borrowing words from other languages is a fait accompli.
- Andy Dustman
Victor: Suppose someone says to you, "Good nite!" and you say back to them, "You miseducated nincompoop, don't say 'nite,' it's spelled 'night.'" You are acting as a "brake" as you say. Right?
- Stephen Mack
Stephen, No it doesn't. It's inanimate. It doesn't refute anything. It's can't. It doesn't possess the intelligence.
- Matthew DeVries
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and proceeds to fire it at the other patrons. 'Why?' asks the confused, surviving waiter amidst the carnage, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder. 'Well, I'm a panda', he says, at the door. 'Look it up.' The waiter turns to the...
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- Matthew DeVries
Stephen start your sentence, "The Chaucer excerpt that I quoted illustrates....." At least I think that is what you are attempting to convey.
- Matthew DeVries
Matthew, yes, that's what I mean -- apologies for use of metonymy as a grammatical shortcut. (And thank you for the literalist Panda joke.)
- Stephen Mack
Matthew, that's one usage crusade you'll have to give up on. Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
- Bruce Lewis
via fftogo
Well played, Bruce.
- Stephen Mack
Yeah, well played......
- Matthew DeVries
On a more serious note, I think Stephen is making a good move by loosening up on spelling as his son starts to read and write. That fits the methodology I've seen work really well in Montessori schools.
- Bruce Lewis
via fftogo
Yes, he should be well suited to a twitter dominant world. Make sure he takes AP LOLcat in highschool as well.
- Matthew DeVries
Twitter's ability to influence language is probably substantial.
- Stephen Mack
Stephen, yeah, I see your point. On the other hand, such a response might actually act as a accelerator, if the person I said it to thought I was someone not worth listening to.
- Victor Ganata
Andy, true. I was specifically thinking of English borrowing words back from languages that had originally borrowed from English, which, yeah, we've already been doing.
- Victor Ganata
Kids are good at unlearning. Empower them first. Tighten up spelling later.
- Bruce Lewis
If I started 'loosening up on spelling', I'd never get a job because I'm a writer and am expected to produce literate and correct copy.
- Charlotte {charley} M
Bruce L., you're exactly right, and it's very interesting to me that proper spelling is now hardly emphasized at all in the early grades.
- Stephen Mack
Charlotte, I'm not suggesting all literate and correct copy be discarded wholesale. As I mention in the blog post, business communications are one venue where we place a huge emphasis on proper spelling and grammar, and that's not going to change for generations if at all. Really I'm trying to explain why for informal discussions (such as the ones here on FF) I'm interested in personally being less of a stickler.
- Stephen Mack
Clearly spelling bees are corruptors of teh youth. Won't someone please think of the children?
- Andy Dustman
Andy, did you see Spellbound? Freaky how much work is involved, for obscure words that most people have never heard of. I am all for intellectual competition, but the value of the top level of competition like that really escapes me. It seems to turn the kids into stress cases.
- Stephen Mack
Stephen, I have not, but spelling bees are the intellectual equivalent of beauty contests. Memorization != rational thinking
- Andy Dustman
Ah, good, then your previous comment was sarcastic. (I approve.)
- Stephen Mack
I think there's enough nails in the coffin of this premise. I'm off to start my long weekend.
- Matthew DeVries
Enjoy your weekend, Matthew! Don't worry, the zombie of this premise will dig its way out of the coffin over time.
- Stephen Mack
Yes, there's a greasy red spot where the dead horse used to be.
- Andy Dustman
Is there? I missed it. Better keep on kicking to be sure.
- Stephen Mack
Amusingly, this is quite possibly the most grammatically- and syntactically-correct comment stream I have ever seen.
- Slippy 2.0
:) I certainly don't want anyone to accuse me of wanting English to evolve solely because I don't know how to speak it. And FFers are an unusually literate bunch.
- Stephen Mack
Language will as language always has. It is a plastic, mutable thing, that changes from place to place, from generation to generation, from one media form to another. Old grammarians don't die, they get abbreviated.
- Slippy 2.0
A few years ago there was a news story that tracked the rate of decrease for irregular verbs. They predicted that in another 100 years only the most important irregular verbs will be around. That is kind of strange to predict where the language will go.
- Rich Thomas
Slippy, I just dislike the people who hold on to the set or rules they learned like it is set in stone.
- Rich Thomas
I think we all have a tendency to hold on to the rules we learned like they're set in stone. Otherwise, they'd just be guidelines :-)
- Slippy 2.0
"In Case Of Zombies" T-shirt by Olly Moss (threadless.com) - http://www.threadless.com/product...
Brian Johns and Neal Krummell liked this
I don't even wear many t-shirts these days, but I love the design of this one (read the directions).
- Stephen Mack
via Bookmarklet
THANKS STEPHEN! Nathan is a huge Zombie fan, so I just ordered this for him!!!
- Georgia Diehl
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny w/ lyrics - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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Neal Krummell and Kevin Fox liked this
I'm glad to see this still making the rounds.
- Neal Krummell
Plus, Obama cooks daal and reads Urdu poetry? | TPMCafe - http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009...
Anne Bouey liked this
From the post, quoting an interview in Pakistan's Dawn: "'As you know, I had Pakistani roommates in college who were very close friends of mine. I went to visit them when I was still in college; was in Karachi and went to Hyderabad. Their mothers taught me to cook,' said Mr Obama. 'What can you cook?' 'Oh, keema ... daal ... You name it, I can cook it. And so I have a great affinity for Pakistani culture and the great Urdu poets.' 'You read Urdu poetry?' 'Absolutely. So my hope is that I'm going to have an opportunity at some point to visit Pakistan,' said Mr Obama."
- Stephen Mack
via Bookmarklet
Oscar-winning actor Karl Malden dies at 97 - Los Angeles Times - http://www.latimes.com/news...
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"Karl Malden, one of Hollywood's strongest and most versatile supporting actors, who won an Oscar playing his Broadway-originated role as Mitch in "A Streetcar Named Desire," died today. He was 97."
- Stephen Mack
via Bookmarklet
97, wow. Streets of San Francisco was a great show, that's how I remember Karl most. But also those Amex commercials and A Streetcar Named Desire, and he was great in On the Waterfront. Patton, too.
- Stephen Mack
His birth name was Mladen Sekulovich (per wiki). Good change, Karl. Heh, this is hilarious: "Malden often found ways to say "Sekulovich" in films and television shows in which he appears. For example, as General Omar Bradley in Patton, as his troops slog their way through enemy fire in Sicily, Malden says "Hand me that helmet, Sekulovich" to another soldier. In Dead Ringer, as a police...
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- Stephen Mack
Half the people in our office didn't know who he was. *sad*
- Jandy
Kids today, I tell you. Tell that half of your office to stay off my lawn and go watch Patton.
- Stephen Mack
:(
- Anne Bouey
Get this - somehow Steve McQueen came up when we were talking about Karl Malden, and a couple of them didn't know him, either. But we schooled them, no worries.
- Jandy
:(
- Derrick
So sad.... :(
- Emma
He had a good long run. RIP
- martha
Who will be the other two celebrities to die this week?
- Brian Johns
Dem's fightin' words, Johns.
- Stephen Mack
We already had Billy. This is two.
- Kevin Fox
And Mollie Sugden died today as well (Mrs. Slocombe on "Are You Being Served?" plus many more fine shows unknown to most Americans), so that makes three, unless you count Gale Storm, in which case it's four. But really it's two so far in July. Fun fact: No matter how you count, statistically you'll have a number divisible by three about a third of the time! But people are tired of me...
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- Stephen Mack
Sad news about a great actor. Apart from the many films, I always member him in 'Streets of San Fransico'
- Kevin Hatton
What? Mrs Slocombe died as well!? :( Man celebs are dropping like flies. At least they got past the age of 50.
- Dario Gomez
Apparently Alexis Argüello, a well-known boxer (three-time champion), also died today.
- Stephen Mack
Food choking hazards and children - http://www.consumerreports.org/cro...
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From the article: "Parents have heard it before, but it bears repeating: Food is the No. 1 choking hazard among children." (Some good tips at the bottom of the page.)
- Stephen Mack
via Bookmarklet
Lisa it's your birthday - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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John Wang, rob friedman, Rachel Lea Fox and 4 other people liked this
Trivia questions (no fair looking up): What Simpsons episode is this from? Who is the guest star credited as? And who sings this song?
- Stephen Mack
Answers: 1. "Stark Raving Dad" 2. MJ was credited as "John Jay Smith" 3. MJ didn't sing in the episode. They only had a contract for MJ's speaking voice. All MJ-imitation singing in the episode was performed by Kipp Lennon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...).
- Stephen Mack
Hey! No fair giving the answers. I was about to type in very similar responses.
- Louis Gray
And if you did look up the answer, http://www.snpp.com is gold.
- Louis Gray
I'll give you full credit! I waited overnight before answering.
- Stephen Mack
Fake celebrity death news generator: http://firstname.lastname.medi...
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Replace "firstname" and "lastname" with the name of the celebrity whose death you wish to greatly exaggerate.
- Stephen Mack
Oh and my motivation in sharing this is not to increase pranksterism, but to instead have people more readily recognize that this particular rumor ("actor so-and-so dies by falling off rocks in New Zealand") is automatically to be considered false.
- Stephen Mack
Chalk
Nir Ben Yona, Ross Williams, Tardid and 7 other people liked this
That is an amazing photo!
- Georgia Diehl
:-))
- Anna Haro
Celebrity deaths do not come in threes - http://www.zeigen.com/blog...
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Will Higgins™, Matt Hartley, Louis Gray and 7 other people liked this
If you believe that celebrities die in three, I ask you this: Why did Dom DeLuise die alone? (RIP, Dom.) EDIT: Since some hadn't heard the news, Dom passed away on May 4th (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...)
- Stephen Mack
I've seen Nathan Chase (http://friendfeed.com/nathanc...), Adam Turetzky (http://friendfeed.com/trouble...), Thomas (http://friendfeed.com/tserio), and angrykeyboarder™ (Scott) (http://friendfeed.com/angryke...) express the superstition. Previous debate was here: http://friendfeed.com/nathanc...
- Stephen Mack
Stephen, because his weight was worth three people?
- Akiva Moskovitz
+100000000000000 Akiva!
- Sean McGee
I am defeated. There is no retort. Akiva is the supreme victor for all time.
- Stephen Mack
Ah, wait, victory has been snatched from defeat. CNN says his weight was a mere 325 pounds (http://www.cnn.com/2009...), so he was only worth the weight of two people. Superstition is again defeated, and science marches on, triumphant, but with much work to do.
- Stephen Mack
Stephen, you don't know enough small people. =)
- Andrew C
Heh, Andrew -- but how many adult male celebrities can you name who weigh 108 or less?
- Stephen Mack
Why male?
- Kevin Fox
Why adult?
- Akiva Moskovitz
I'm 20 and weigh 125, that's pretty close. Though I am no celebrity, Verne Troyer though.
- James Fuller
Stephen, I applaud your rational non-superstitious ways.
- George Saj
Thanks George! For the others, so, remind me how the rule works? Celebrities die in threes, or weigh as much as three very very slim or young celebrities? Remind me again what agent enforces this rule?
- Stephen Mack
Welcome to a new episode of Stephen Mack Takes Shit Too Seriously!
- Akiva Moskovitz
Gary Colman, Tiny Tim, and Tom Cruise
- Brian Johns
Akiva, that's my very favorite show! I watch it daily.
- Stephen Mack
Mack obviously hasn't been hanging out around the tracks enuf, all of my friends way less than 100 lbs and no more then 4 feet tall
- Davis Freeberg
Tom Cruise isn't a people.
- Neal Krummell
^That's because he's a NUT.
- James Fuller
When an unexpected death hits, we can all be at a loss for words. Sometimes our brains just reach for platitudes because we don't know what else to say. And then this superstition about death coming in threes spills out. I beg you, plead you -- avoid the silliness, avoid the superstition, and refrain from falling back on this moronic, unscientific, magic fairy dust concept of death coming in threes. Thank you.
- Stephen Mack
This is where I go... Dom DeLuise died?
- Louis Gray
Indeed, back in May. Might not have had quite the same level of coverage that MJ's passing had....
- Stephen Mack
I didn't even know! Now, this one makes me sad.
- Jim:Rockin the Helvetica
RIP, Billy Mays (passed away today -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...). So, is it "celebrity deaths come in fours" now? Or, if two more are pending, please be sure to let me know the timeframe so we can make sure it's exactly two more and not one or three more.
- Stephen Mack
You know, saying "I told you so," is such a great quality. Not in the least bit pretentious or smug.
- Sean McGee
Sorry you see it that way, Sean. I'm really not trying to say "I told you so" -- I'm trying to refute magic thinking and pseudoscientific poop. If you read the earlier thread, there are people posting who genuinely believe this superstition.
- Stephen Mack
Ah, Sean, I see your "trifecta" post now (http://friendfeed.com/txsean...). So I can see how you took my update as an "I told you so." Well, sorry again to sound pretentious or smug, because I don't intend to come off that way. But if nothing else comes out of this, will you back down from your belief in the trifecta as anything beyond selective perception?
- Stephen Mack
Nah, Stephen. Let me illustrate my position with a question: do all people who enjoy hearing and telling Ghost Stories believe in Ghosts?
- Sean McGee
No. But someone who likes ghost stories wouldn't necessarily jump to talk about a celebrity's ghost right after that celebrity passed away. That would make me suspect they believed in ghosts.
- Stephen Mack
Natural Bridges, Santa Cruz, CA - http://www.zeigen.com/blog...
Jeff P. Henderson, Rachel Lea Fox and Alex Scoble liked this
Ah, I'd hoped the MediaRSS plug-in would automatically bring in the YouTube video here as well. Time to hack some PHP and read some specs.
- Stephen Mack
And more on topic: As a kid I loved climbing over the land bridge to the end of the rocks. Weird that now the park should be called "Natural Bridge" (singular) after the major chunk of the land bridge eroded. Still a beautiful beach, though. And always much larger waves here than closer to the boardwalk.
- Stephen Mack
I need to go down for clam chowder sometime soon. It's SOOOO good!
- Rachel Lea Fox
Rachel, grab Kevin right now and head down to the wharf. Bring your camera too. If it ends up as misty tonight as it was last night, you'll get some AMAZING photos of the seals, sea lions, sea birds, and pelicans. (In addition to the chowdah, that is.)
- Stephen Mack
We would, but we've got iFly tonight!
- Kevin Fox
To my son, Fred Flintstone's only role in the universe is as a dispenser of vitamins.
Louis Gray, Alix Whitmire ☂, Roberto Bonini and 8 other people liked this
:) My girl was convinced the show was based on the vitamins.
- Anika Malone
via fftogo
Sophie and Sammy at Natural Bridges, Santa Cruz, CA - http://www.youtube.com/watch...
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April Buchheit, Fossil Huntress, Alex Scoble and 2 other people liked this
FF etiquette question: I was going to delete this item, because it'll be a duplicate once the blog post hits. But now Anne has "liked" it, plus some may prefer just the video rather than my blog commentary. My instinct says I should only have one item in my feed for a given "thing" though. What do people think? Should I delete this?
- Stephen Mack
I agree that duplication as a rule should be avoided, but this seems like a case where maybe it makes sense to leave both because of the 'like' on the original and the added value of commentary on the blog post. Unless Anne 'likes' your next post too, then you can delete the first without losing the 'like'? I've struggled with variations of this myself (for example, news articles shared...
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- Chris Munro
Sophie is getting so big and cute!!! Great little video! I've asked a few times similar duplication questions with our Antarctica photos and post and have been told to leave the flickr photos as well as the post. Some people will see both, but others might only see one. I think its fine to leave it!!
- Rachel Lea Fox
Chris and Rachel, thanks so much for the advice! I'll leave it. (And Chris, if it's two pointers to the same external article, I think I'd delete the mobile one in favor of the enhanced one, but only if there are no comments/likes on the original.)
- Stephen Mack
Sometimes I delete the dupe regardless of likes. If there's comments, I'll copy them over.
- Anika Malone
via fftogo
Bandage boy
Mustafa, Brent:Too Cool for School, Anika Malone and Cee Bee liked this
Oh no, what happened?
- Rachel Lea Fox
This is part of our ongoing struggle with his eczema. On Friday early (around 1am) he had his worst itching attack yet. His skin was so awful! I don't even want to describe how bad it was. So my wife took the day off to get him into the doctor, and fought for a dermatologist referral then and there. As a result, he's on a new course of antibiotics, diet changes, prescription creams, and...
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- Stephen Mack
:( I'm glad there is progress, I'm really sorry he and you have to go through it all.
- Rachel Lea Fox
Thanks! Fortunately, as you can see from the photo, he's in a good mood about it all. :)
- Stephen Mack
poor guy. hope he feels better
- Cee Bee
He looks totally happy. It's amazing what kids can put up with sometimes and keep a smile on their faces. You just feel so bad when something actually removes that smile from their faces. Sammy is such a good kid!!
- Rachel Lea Fox
But I do suspect he needs to use the gent's.
- Jack Carlson
Heh heh, Jack, maybe I should have used a different photo -- he's mid-jump. (Also why it's a little blurry, which I didn't notice until just now...)
- Stephen Mack
Swine flu graph update #3: A(H1N1) modest rate increase - http://www.zeigen.com/blog...
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Amit Patel, Jérôme Flipo and Anne Bouey liked this
Sadly, I knew the person up in Sac that passed last Tuesday. A great loss of a person. :(
- Neal Krummell
Neal, very sorry to hear that.
- Stephen Mack
Seu Jorge - The Life Aquatic Studio Sessions - http://likaholix.com/zeigen...
Victor Ganata, Ayşe E., Rodfather and Anika Malone liked this
Bowie covers, done acoustic and sung in Portuguese. You may recognize one or two of these songs if you saw "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" but the complete album is so perfect. The classic Bowie songs come alive. This album is honestly the most relaxing thing I own.
- Stephen Mack
via Likaholix
Sounds interesting. I'll definitely check it out.
- Anika Malone
We have the Life Aquatic on our netflix que, haven't gotten there yet though... we really should.
- Rachel Lea Fox
The movie I'm not so hot on, not my favorite of the Wes Anderson works, but the soundtrack has haunted me for years. Check out Life on Mars for a good example: http://www.youtube.com/watch...
- Stephen Mack
/wave to faboo! :)
- Stephen Mack
Love this.
- Ayşe E.
*waves back*
- Anika Malone
What celebrity's death would hit you personally the hardest?
Richly N. Chheuy, Jennifer Dittrich, Louis Gray and 9 other people liked this
I can't imagine anyone's death (anyone that I don't know, that is) affecting me more than how I felt after John Lennon died. But then again, I was only 13 when that happened.
- Stephen Mack
Probably Andy Bell of Erasure. I took Brad Delp's death very hard, Gilda Radner's also.
- Gunny The Fuzzball ™
John Lennon. I was on the air the night it happened, and found it hard to read the teletype copy. I still have it.
- Chris Baskind
I know a ton of people are really upset from Farrah's and Michael's passing today. It's certainly shocking, but I don't feel a sense of personal loss the same way as when, say, Kurt Vonnegut or George Carlin passed away. Perhaps because I had become so alienated from Michael because of all the weirdness.
- Stephen Mack
this one is hitting me pretty hard. I was a fan of michael's before I could walk
- chrisofspades
Steve Martin. When he dies, that will destroy me. Unless, that is, he's lived to 98 and lived well and valiantly to the end. Even so, I'll be sad.
- Ladybug Heather
John Lennon
- Josh Haley
Robin Williams
- Kevin Fox
Billy Connolly I think. Comedy is a treasure..
- Mark Aitken
Aaliyah's death really touched me for some reason.
- April Buchheit
Good question. One that seems may get answered this week for me as celebrities are dropping like flies. By this point, I can't really think of any celebrity where it would hit really hard. Michael Jackson was shocking to me, more because of his age. 50 is kinda young.
- Dario Gomez
If their death was from falling out of a plane, and I was underneath them, then I'd probably have to say John Candy.
- Kevin Fox
I remember when River Phoenix, Brandon Lee and Heath Ledger passed away -- each time thinking such a shame to lose such amazing potential so young.
- Stephen Mack
I remembered that especially, too, April. I was out biking. 9/11 happened soon after that. I don't have a good answer to Stephen's question. I don't usually pay attention to celebrities much. I do feel some sadness about Jackson.
- Kamilah Gill
Kevin, I hate myself for laughing at that.
- Stephen Mack
William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Bill Clinton, Lance Armstrong, Bruce Campbell, Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood.
- Alex Scoble
Ooh Alex, good list. And your Bill Clinton one got me -- if Barrack Obama counts as a celebrity in the same way, oh man... If he died while in office, it would be the most enormous story of the century ever, and I would be so depressed.
- Stephen Mack
Twitter.
- Chris Baskind
I keep fearing that I'm going to wake to news that Paul McCartney is dead, sort of like I woke in December of 1980 to hear the news about John. An eventuality, I guess, but not one I'm looking forward to. George Harrison's death shook me pretty good too.
- Jim:Rockin the Helvetica
Twitter's already dead, doesn't count.
- Stephen Mack
Carlin's death was shocking to me. Maybe Cronkite's will be as well. I grew listening to both of them.
- Jack Carlson
Don't know about "hitting us hard", but I believe Stephen King is a living legend and will never be replaced.
- Louis Gray
Patrick Stewart, Alyson Hannigan, Neil Patrick Harris. I'm surprised I'm having a hard time thinking of celebrities who are that important to me. Maybe this is a good thing.
- Kevin Fox
Good question, Stephen. Carol Burnett and Lance Armstrong.
- Rick Cogley
The Bigfoot death hit me hard until I found out it was fake, that's why I was skeptical about this at first... Michael Jackson was the last of the classic artists, in the modern era who else can stand to what he has achieved
- Joe Dawson
Steve Jobs?
- Louis Gray
Robert Scoble
- Morton Fox
Megatron
- Mo Kargas
magic johnson
- chrisofspades
via email
Bill Gates. Oh wait... celebrities ... how about Jack Nicholson, Robert Dinero, Al Pacino, Matt Damon.
- Brian Daniel Eisenberg
Steve Jobs, cause John Peel and Tony Wilson are both in heaven already.
- Tibor Holoda
Also, Steve Jobs, Chick Corea and Pat Metheny.
- Rick Cogley
Aaliyah and Mitch Hedberg got to me. I honestly would not know until after the fact how I would be affected.
- Amber Spence
Robert DeNiro
- Shevonne
With Joe Biden at #2, I think losing Obama would hit me the hardest
- Davis Freeberg
Actually there are just a few left. I remember well when K. Cobain died. That was quite sad. All my favourite are quite gone. David Foster Williams was quite shocking to me... I don't like people dying. I I think it's sad. :-|
- diego morelli
I was gutted when David Feintuch died and I guess I'd really miss Eddie Izzard Philip Schofield. Seriously!
- Timothy Griffin
To be honest, I think the death of Jim Henson had the biggest impact to me, personally -- I'm not sure I can think of anyone else that would hit me that hard. It still makes me sad, and is something I think about when I watch his work.
- Jennifer Dittrich
JFK's assassination was truly horrible for those of us old enough to remember. I pray that never happens again. I think that would be the worst.
- Leo Laporte
Can't really think of anyone...
- Richly N. Chheuy
Maybe he's not a celebrity along the lines that you are thinking but Barack Obama for me...
- BEX Happy Long Weekend
Doesn't look like anyone mentioned my musician favorites: Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and Elton John.
- Tony Vota
I'd be really, really upset if anything happened to Maggie Smith, Judi Dench or Patrick Stewart, to name a few. Of course, it'd be hard to imagine a celebrity death that upset me more than Princess Diana's. (Phil Hartman's murder comes close, but it's different.)
- Kate Schmidt
When Willie Nelson passes, I will be a mess. I grew up on his music in my grandfather's music room. So many happy memories of Sunday dinners at my grandparents' house when I was a kid are inextricably linked to Willie Nelson songs. And, if anything happened to Obama, that would be absolutely devastating. There are several authors, atheletes, other musicians, even other political figures I would miss and mourn, but those are the two I actually worry about.
- Chris Munro
None. Celebrities are meaningless.
- Andy Bakun
Perhaps Stevie Wonder, now that I think about it.
- Kamilah Gill
People only "think' they feel sad when Reagan or some celebrity dies. It's a verisimilitude and a result of sense extension through media. Folks really believe they know these people! That's what I *really feel sad about - *every day. How pathetic is our society?
- Marg Uerite
Late-breaking TV schedule updates
Louis Gray and John E. Bredehoft liked this
NBC -- Farrah's Story 8-10pm (previously scheduled for 9-11pm -- replaces "The Chopping Block" from 8 to 9)
- Stephen Mack
NBC -- Michael Jackson: King of Pop 10-11pm
- Stephen Mack
ABC -- 20/20 (Michael Jackson Tribute) 9-10pm (replaces two reruns of "According to Jim")
- Stephen Mack
All shows replace previously published schedules. Your TiVo DVRs will NOT receive these schedule changes in time, so if you wish to record, please use the manual record feature.
- Stephen Mack
Wouldn't want to miss those great shows.
- Cristo the Troll™
Not to take anything away from it, but at least in the case of MJ, I think I know about as much as I want to about his life and music career.
- George Saj
How about we all just turn our TVs off for the next 3 or 4 days until this all blows over... I'm hoping they don't PricessDi-ify this whole thing...
- Steve Lacy
The blue and the green (optical illusion) | Discover Magazine - http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastr...
Mike Nencetti, Keith Pelczarski, Private Sanjeev and Rob Sellen :o) liked this
"Via my evil twin Richard Wiseman comes one of the best color optical illusions I have ever seen. The original was apparently posted on Buzzhunt Akiyoshi Kitaoka’s incredible optical illusion website: Blue green spiral illusion You see embedded spirals, right, of green, pinkish-orange, and blue? Incredibly, the green and the blue spirals are the same color. At first I thought Richard was pulling our collective legs, being a trickster of high magnitude. So I loaded the image in Photoshop and examined the two spirals. In the two squares displayed below, the one on the left is colored using the same color from the blue spiral, and on the right using the green spiral. green and blue squares Like I said, incredible! For pedantry sake, the RGB colors in both spirals are 0, 255, 150. So they are mostly green with a solid splash of blue. The reason they look different colors is because our brain judges the color of an object by comparing it to surrounding colors."
- Stephen Mack
via Bookmarklet
"This is why I tell people over and over again: you cannot trust what you see even with your own eyes. Your eyes are not cameras faithfully taking pictures of absolute truth of all that surrounds you. They have filters, and your brain has to interpret the jangled mess it gets fed. Colors are not what they appear, shapes are not what they appear (that zoomed image above is square,...
more...
- Anne Bouey
Nice excerpt, Anne. I'm certainly proud to be a subjectivist. We're all imperfect human beings with imperfect brains trapped inside our imperfect bodies using imperfect memories of events relayed to us via imperfect senses to navigate a complex world. And this illusion is just one excellent example of that. Certainly looks blue and green to me. Gotcha!
- Stephen Mack
Pick my snack please!
Dee S., Alex Scoble and Steve Lacy liked this
Bear in mind, I'm allergic to nuts.
- Stephen Mack
via email
skittles or starburst?
- Steve Lacy
Man, nut allergies suck -- you never know how good Resses are, or BR's Chocolate & Peanut butter ice cream.
- Steve Lacy
I can't even stand the smell of peanut butter. So, yeah, everything you listed sounds utterly repellent.
- Stephen Mack
No Reeses? Then I can't help you. :)
- Alex Scoble
M&Ms, yum!
- Georgia Diehl
In other news, I remain impressed with the built-in camera of the iPhone 3GS....
- Stephen Mack
I vote for the wheat thins! Salty & crunchy - but won't hurt your teeth like corn nuts would.
- Erin "Wifey" Johns
OK, so there are valid nominations for Skittles, Starburst, M&Ms, and Wheat Thins. First tie breaker I see, that's what I'm going with.
- Stephen Mack
I suppose we're not allowed to vote twice?
- Steve Lacy
Unless you change your vote.
- Stephen Mack
Penny votes for M&Ms, that means they win :)
- Georgia Diehl
Penny can only vote when she's capable of typing her vote here on FF.
- Stephen Mack
I usually go for the m&ms if its late afternoon and I need a snack
- Carl Haynes
OK so M&Ms win, but the moment passed and I'm no longer hungry. Turns out this "by committee" thing might be a good diet plan...
- Stephen Mack
For the future, twix is always the best snack choice.
- Dario Gomez
Get the nutter butters. You can drop 'em off in my cube.
- Robert Christ
Watching the FriendFeed development team drunk-post to FF is amusing: http://friendfeed.com/search...
Louis Gray, Nation Hahn, Dan Hsiao and 13 other people liked this
And pretty much everything from http://friendfeed.com/ross
- Stephen Mack
There is also a push-up competition and a bunch of people playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour on the Xbox, but we're too drunk to take more pictures.
- Tudor Bosman
Also, it took me 4 tries to spell "people" correctly in the previous comment.
- Tudor Bosman
Heh, heh Tudor, that's epic. Prediction: Tomorrow's hashtag from the FFers is #hangoverFriday
- Stephen Mack
You all suck at pushups!!!
- Jim Norris
So Jim won the drunk push-up competition, check. Who's the best at drunken video game golf?
- Stephen Mack
I'm worried about going near the FF office after getting off the train... My worries are seeming more and more founded...
- Neal Krummell
Well, nobody else really tried, except Ana did six or seven semi-pushups.
- Jim Norris
You should all be good at Rock Band about now. I think 3 martini's (or the like) is a requirement for going on stage!
- Rachel Lea Fox
I think they've all passed out now....
- Stephen Mack
Homer Simpson voice on TomTom - http://www.tomtom.com/page...
Jeff P. Henderson, Sandra, Rishabh Mishra (p248) and Alex Scoble liked this
From the page (which has samples): "Directly from Springfield, America’s most popular Dad makes his way to TomTom devices. With the original Homer at your side, even the shortest drive will transform into a journey to remember. You’ll see, driving with Homer is as easy as 1,2 … doh!"
- Stephen Mack
via Bookmarklet
Do I want Homer telling me which way to turn and when I've reached my destination? OH YES
- Stephen Mack
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