Weekly Review

From Harpers.org:

A suicide car bomb at a school in Shalbandi, Pakistan, killed more than 30 people, suicide bombs in Afghanistan killed at least 20 people, including 13 schoolchildren, a car bomb in Baghdad killed at least 24 people, and cancer rates were on the rise worldwide.^{12 13 14 15} Somalian President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, whose government controls only a few city blocks in a country nearly the size of Texas, resigned and was expected to return to the northern stronghold of his clan, leaving the country to be run by insurgents. Islamist militant group Ahlu-Sunna Wal-Jama killed ten members of rival Islamist militant group the Shabab and called for its own members to “prepare themselves for jihad against these heretic groups” in order to “restore stability and harmony in Somalia.”^{16 17} Military officers in Guinea took control of the country in a bloodless coup,¹⁸ and protesters in Thailand surrounded the parliament, delaying the new government's opening legislative session.¹⁹ It was revealed that the CIA has been bribing Afghani tribal leaders with Viagra,²⁰ and Bjork started a venture-capital fund in Iceland.²¹

Scientists found that chimpanzees use the same region of the brain as humans to recognize familiar faces.²² At a movie theater in Philadelphia a man shot another man in the arm for making too much noise during a Christmastime showing of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,²³ and a man in Pittsburgh was arrested for assault after he failed to change his three-year-old's diaper for several days, causing second-degree burns on the child's legs and genitals.²⁴ Hedge-fund manager and New York Yacht Club member Rene-Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, who lost more than a billion dollars in Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme, stayed late after work at his Manhattan office, slit his wrists with a box cutter, and bled to death at his desk.²⁵ Chip Saltsman, a Tennessee Republican seeking the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, defended his decision to include the song “Barack the Magic Negro” on a holiday mix CD he sent to Committee members. “I think most people recognize political satire when they see it,” Saltsman said. “I think RNC members understand that.”²⁶ Dozens of people in Illinois contracted food poisoning from contaminated ham served at the Lawrence County Health Department Christmas party. “It's not been funny,” said the head of the department, who was among those sickened by the ham. “It's taken the punch out of my whole Christmas.”²⁷ An eight-year-old Saudi Arabian girl was denied a divorce from her 58-year-old husband because she was too young to file, ²⁸ a man in Massachusetts died of carbon monoxide poisoning after a dead raccoon became stuck in his furnace exhaust, ²⁹ and an Ontario woman was found buried under three feet of snow three days after she went missing. “Wow,” she told rescue workers. “I've been here a long time.”³⁰

Better than a mango even.

Merriweather Post Pavilion

The shit it so good. I put a track from it on the playlist at the bottom of the page. You should go listen to it real loud.

Torture

This is a terrible picture but you can see that the kids are doing some kind of duck walk while holding their ears. They really didn't want me taking a picture of them doing it. And for good reason; they really look stupid. It's the holding of the ears part that kills me. Of all the methods of embarrassment/torture that the teachers come up with, this combination is my favorite.

I want to walk around with you.

Apparently Christians aren't all that bad. Most of them think that you're going to heaven just like they are:

One very plausible explanation is that Americans just want good things to come to good people, regardless of their faith. As Alan Segal, a professor of religion at Barnard College told me: “We are a multicultural society, and people expect this American life to continue the same way in heaven.” He explained that in our society, we meet so many good people of different faiths that it’s hard for us to imagine God letting them go to hell. In fact, in the most recent survey, Pew asked people what they thought determined whether a person would achieve eternal life. Nearly as many Christians said you could achieve eternal life by just being a good person as said that you had to believe in Jesus.

But why hasn't heaven been democratized? It's almost 2009. My ear and throat don't feel right at all. I need to go buy a block of tofu and a bottle of soju and wrap myself up in this new Animal Collective and think about that first trip to Mexico and what it's going to feel like in a week when I get to lay my head in your laps.

This song makes me miss the summer so hard.

jean shorts
canoes
silly ass girls
jumping out of trees
eternal drunkeness

I don't remember the occasion.

Just get a bob-tailed bay.

I'll bring the granola.

I'm on my way to a Christmas party at my boys house. I made garlic mashed potatoes and a spanish omelette and it smells so good I'm tempted to stay home and eat mashed potatoes until I shit myself. Also, Frightened Rabit is by far my favorite band of the last 18 hours. The dude is so Scottish and miserable.

I want one.

This is why I used to study psychology.

They found an old doctor in Switzerland who had two strokes and became completely blind, but now when he walks around, he avoids obstacles in his path and doesn't even know that he's doing it.

TN has what is known as blind sight, according to de Gelder. Even though the primary part of his brain that processes visual information is destroyed, he still has more primitive parts of his brain intact, and these are capable of doing some visual processing. After all, one of the most basic functions of the visual system is to help an animal avoid obstacles or predators. TN still has some visual abilities — he's just not aware he has them.

Steven Hackley, an associate professor of psychological sciences, says studying patients such as TN will tell scientists about the nature of consciousness.

"The idea is that by comparing the same mental process when it is conscious and when it is not, it will be possible to determine which parts of the brain are essential and how consciousness arises," Hackley says.

I ate too many cookies.

Today was full of surprises.

I decided to run away.
Then I decided not to run away.
Never found the source of that smell.
I did not see a Korean man wearing a white man's face.
Did see a robot directing traffic.

Cut the bullshit, Wayne.

Carolyn

Koreans are pretty fucking serious about their agriculture. And I gather that that's what the brawl yesterday came down to - that this free trade bill with the United States would cause the Korean government to roll back protective measures on farming. So yesterday when the ruling Grand National Party locked themselves in a committee room to try to introduce the bill, the opposition party took a sledgehammer to the door and hell kind of broke loose. Luckily there were lots of guys with nice cameras around at the time.

In Cheonan

We all agree that the quality of our lives would be greatly improved by cheap red wine and porches.

It would also be cool if this mold would go away, if my school would chill out and pay me for January like they done said they would, and if old women would quit farting in my face.

Dinner at Mrs. Kim's

Mark Bolan

I had absolutely nothing to do at school today. The students went home around third hour and I was hoping I would be allowed to leave as well, but I wasn't. So instead of doing anything productive, I slept and watched a PBS special about the Iraq War. I also found these youtube videos of a British journalist whose job, as far as I can tell, is to make Asian people with growth disorders feel uncomfortable.

Tall Woman
Little Man
Another Little Man

Petri Dish

This is what it looks like behind my bed! What the fuck? I mean what the fuck? I can feel it in my lungggsss. I need to get out of here.

I miss

the old man too.

The Rich Get Poor

This is not an Onion article, but it could be.

Jodi Hamilton began her senior year of high school in Woodcliff Lake, N.J., this fall on the usual prosperous footing. Her parents were providing a weekly allowance of $100 and paying for private Pilates classes, as well as a physics tutor who reported once a week to their 4,000-square-foot home.

But in October, Jodi’s mother lost her job managing a huge dental practice in the Bronx, then landed one closer to home that requires more hours for less money. Pilates was dropped, along with takeout sushi dinners, and Jodi’s allowance, which covers lunch during the week, slipped to $60. Instead of having a tutor, Jodi has become a tutor, earning $150 a week through that and baby-sitting.

“I just thought it would be responsible to get a job and have my own money so my parents didn’t have to pay for everything,” said Jodi, who is 17. “I always like to be saving up for something that I have my eye on — a ring, a necklace, a handbag.”

It is impossible to quantify how many affluent parents have trimmed allowances in recent months — or how many of their offspring, in turn, have sought either formal employment or odd jobs.

ATillest

Last November Joseph and I went to Atlanta to see Joanna Newsom and fish.

SARS

I'd forgotten why I stopped asking questions at school. It's because when I do, I get answers like "Oh, people wear those masks for many reasons. SARS comes in the spring."

Email

These kids are really cute:

Hi Fletcher~haha^0^* Did you wait for my E-mail?KKKKKKKKK I'm so sorry~

These days are very~ busy T^T Because 18th is Final test! (English test is 19th haha ㅠ.ㅠ)

I didn't study ordinary times so I must study hard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know that must study hard, but I didnt study everyday, I'm going crazy~T.T

How are you feeling now? much better? Maybe you're feeling is much better than yesterday, then I'm happy >.<

But, My feel not good, because today's night is very very very cold~ But I wear a clothes very thin.

So......... I have a bad bad cold T^T Maybe, you tell me "Hello! I want to your feeling is much better~"......?

I will happy~~~~KKKK

Time is late, already 12:41 am.... I will send the E-mail in Sunday~(maybe)

I will longer than this letter~ I'm sorry~ and I hope your feeling is much better than me,KK

Goodbye

Snake skin

One of the Korean language teachers in my office gave me a huge amount of kimchi this morning. I was psyched about it until later in the day when I realized that in exchange, I was expected to go to an uncomfortably-Christian piano concert with her and her husband. (Go watch the pianist's introduction video now. That's the woman who we saw play. I think God touched her in Russia.) I would say that she was terrible, but honestly after the teacher's husband laughed at my explanation of Unitarianism, I stopped listening to the music and kind of got lost in vague fantasies of his wife doing nasty things while wearing nothing but her snake skin boots.

I love her when it's cold outside.

Weekend

Weddings in Korea are only like 30 minutes. And for the last 15 minutes of it, your boys sing you karaoke in the dark.
I don't know.


This dude started crying out of nowhere. I don't know what happened. He got his hug and ran off holding his face. Also, the back of her sign said "Hugs - Mugs".