Author Archive
Saturday, December 19th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-19
“One can only be honest about having a point of view while remaining open to …reality…that might demolish it.” http://s.nyt.com/u/vfg #
P&E and Kirkus gone. http://s.nyt.com/u/vwp #
For fun: My favorite things of 2009 http://bit.ly/6T4gvi #
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Thursday, December 17th, 2009
My favorite things of 2009
Here’s a list of things from 2009 that I particularly liked. The list has no order to it. And so:
Leica M9 — A full-frame camera that not only is not an intimidating SLR but also comes from the greatest line of cameras—the Leica M series—but is also a gorgeous rangefinder, but also gives you access [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Baseball, Books, General, Music, Technology by Rick
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Why emailing a PowerPoint is better than delivering a presentation
For the evidence, see this study that came out of the University of Alabama.
No Comments » - Posted in Books, General, Technology by Rick
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
What is poetry good for?
I just read (and enjoyed) Ian McEwan’s story, “The Use of Poetry,” in the New Yorker at the recommendation of T-Rex Tragedies, who cited this passage, which must make you laugh:
She said goodbye politely enough and went on her way, but Beard walked after her and asked if she was free the next day, or [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Books, General by Rick
Friday, December 4th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-12-04
Dowd didn't mention people's hypocrisy re privacy: willing to give up for popularity but not compromised security: http://bit.ly/5RCkaj #
A nice little web-based tool for making iPhone icons: http://www.flavorstudios.com/iphone-icon-generator #
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, November 27th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-27
RT @parisreview: A writer takes earnest measures to secure his solitude and then finds endless ways to squander it. -Don DeLillo #
"…ideological inconsistency is, for me, practically an article of faith." –Zadie Smith #
David Brooks on the importance of the emotional education that comes from art: http://s.nyt.com/u/Csa #
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, November 20th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-20
"..the promise is of infinite knowledge but what’s delivered is infinite information, and the two are hardly the same." http://bit.ly/1ivcM9 #
Excellent suggestion from @lmcintire for a late dinner after missing Sushi Zone by one minute: Chow. Had forgotten it after years away. in reply to lmcintire #
Wait, you want to replay the match, but if [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, November 13th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-13
How an SI reporter scooped the magazine's own story: http://s.nyt.com/u/Dbk #
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, November 6th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-11-06
"I support children wearing helmets on their bicycles—there's just a certain nostalgia for when they didn't. When we didn't." #
Gold isn't a safe investment; it's a bubble: http://bit.ly/3Rhjni #
"Note to Joe West: home plate is the white thing in the ground in front of the catcher. It is 17 inches wide." http://bit.ly/1QFkyY #
Huge cheers for [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, October 30th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-30
"…the drive to uniqueness and authenticity is what we have in common." [Just an attempt to justify absence of shared experience?] #
Attention is one of the most valuable modern resources. If we waste it on frivolous communication, we will have nothing left when we need it #
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, October 23rd, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-23
http://bit.ly/3qCaYLWe "…the even flimsier assumption that we could know with any certainty what was good even for us…." #
"…independence is not the essential quality of a mind or personality." #
Platon: Immediately after McCain announced his presidental bid, he celebrated in the limo by listening to Abba's "Dancing Queen." #tnyfest #
Platon: Mos Def's motto: "Trust few. [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Monday, October 19th, 2009
The most popular independent bookstores in America (on Twitter)
NFI Research has compiled a list of the independent bookstores with the most Twitter followers. Powell’s of Portland comes in first, by far, with 9,880 followers as of October 13, 2009. New York stores dominate the list, and only one Bay Area store, Booksmith, even makes an appearance on it. This is a sharp reversal [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Books, General, Save Kepler's, Technology by Rick
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
What was Barack Obama reading during the campaign? “Be Quiet, Be Heard”
According to New Yorker photographer Platon, President Obama had the book Be Quiet, Be Heard: The Paradox of Persuasion by Susan and Peter Glaser on his desk during the campaign last year when Platon shot Obama for the magazine.
Platon delivered this nugget during his talk at the New Yorker Festival this afternoon. Of course, there [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in Books, General, Music by Rick
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Run This Town (New York Yankees Version)
Before the Yankees game on Friday night, the stadium’s PA played a special Yankees version of the Jay-Z song “Run This Town.” Is it just bad or is it so bad it’s good?
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var FO = { movie:”https://media.dreamhost.com/mediaplayer.swf”,width:”320″,height:”20″,majorversion:”7″,build:”0″,bgcolor:”#FFFFFF”,
flashvars:”file=http://rickyopaterny.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Run-This-Town-NY-Yankees-Edition.mp3&showdigits=true&autostart=false” };
UFO.create(FO,”Run-This-Town-NY-Yankees-Edition.mp3″);
[...]
No Comments » - Posted in Baseball, General, Music by Rick
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
Listen to Bon Iver at the New Yorker Festival, or how bad is the iPhone’s microphone?
I saw Sasha Frere-Jones interview Justin Vernon of Bon Iver as part of the New Yorker Festival last night. After the interview, Vernon played a brief solo set of the following songs. Unfortunately, I didn’t have my MiniDisc recorder with me, and I have yet to acquire a Tascam DR-1. So, I recorded the set [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Books, General, Music, Technology by Rick
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Can you still watch football?
Much has been made recently about the link between NFL careers and brain damage. The New York Times has run an excellent series on the subject and Malcolm Gladwell just penned an essay equating football with dog fighting in the New Yorker. I expect that he’ll rehash much of its content for his New Yorker [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Does exercise prevent colds?
The answer is yes and no. Moderate exercise can strengthen your immune system, but running yourself to exhaustion will deplete it.
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, October 9th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-09
Paraphrasing M. Stewart:If political parties funded poly sci depts the way corps fund b-schools, we would consider their research propaganda #
This is what Condé Nast got for hiring snake oil salesman–uh, I mean, consul….?! http://bit.ly/40KPfh #
Are you joking?! The consultants pulled the oldest trick in the book on Condé–profit analysis. Where's that skew graph? http://bit.ly/ZXLkV [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
Updike archives going to Harvard
No surprises here—John Updike’s archives are going to the Houghton Library at Harvard.
No Comments » - Posted in Books, General by Rick
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
The Management Myth reviewed in the Journal
Philip Delves Broughton, whose book on HBS I wrote about last fall, reviewed Matthew Stewart’s The Management Myth in the Wall Street Journal a couple months back. I’m currently enjoying Stewart’s skewering of business theory after having read his Atlantic article that spawned the book a few months ago. His thesis—that management theory is a [...]
No Comments » - Posted in Books, General by Rick
Friday, October 2nd, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-10-02
What's the point of watching TV if a hilarious show like Parks and Recreation is up for cancellation after only eight episodes? #
How did he expect to get the Olympics without healthcare…or healthcare without the Olympics…ugh. #
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Gendered food
Can someone explain this? Is there a women’s version too?
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
Using all five forces
I’ve frequently doubted the effectiveness of business frameworks as they’re used in companies and schools. However, I have realized that frameworks are very good at doing one thing: they allow people to pretend that decisions that should be subjective, political, and emotional are actually objective, technical, and quantitative.
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, September 25th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-25
MA should put Atul Gawande in Kennedy's vacant Senate seat. Brilliant! http://bit.ly/1dmohE #
Just read Evan Ratliff's 2005 NYer piece, "The Zombie Hunters"–good stuff: http://rickyopaterny.com/shorturl/zh #
RT @lmcintire IKEA bookshelf, how does it feel do [sic] get totally owned? That's what I thought. [How does it feel to get sic'd?] #
…et al, I'm warning you, @ChrisButterick [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, September 18th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-18
That's just Roger being Roger: http://bit.ly/16Qvi1 #
US doctors overwhelmingly want a public option or single payer: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/reprint/NEJMp0907876.pdf #
When will pubs realize that subscription fees for apps suck? Make us pay a larger one-time fee rather than a small, incremental fee forever. #
Condé Nast hired McKinsey to help them cut costs. This can't be good for [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, September 11th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-11
The issues with using Adobe CS3 with Snow Leopard: http://bit.ly/NfiE6 #
Ugh. I started reading the @NYTimes in high school because I didn't want to read about California! http://cnt.to/hDo (via @paidcontent) #
Screening of the Spike Jonze/Dave Eggers film version of Where the Wild Things Are in SF on 9/30 http://bit.ly/qfFXD #
Police checkpoint on 19th [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
R.E.M. and MoveOn collaborate
As much as I support the public option, I’m not sure about its political possibility right now. However, I am sure that my favorite band, R.E.M., and MoveOn collaborated to produce a video urging its inclusion in any upcoming health care bill. The video is simply a slideshow of MoveOn members holding signs with the [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General, Music by Rick
Monday, September 7th, 2009
Leica’s new digital cameras
Leica will be announcing its new lineup of cameras on Wednesday via a live webcast at 9 am EDT. The odds of getting one of these things for myself is low, but I’m looking forward to hearing what my favorite camera maker has in store, anyway.
No Comments » - Posted in General, Technology by Rick
Friday, September 4th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-09-04
Took BP at MA yesterday with @tylershores in 102-degree weather. #
Listening to a great Fresh Air interview with Ted Kennedy from a few years ago: http://bit.ly/15BRtD #
How is it that the New Yorker and NYTM both run profiles of the Bryan brothers in the same week? #
PlayRadioPlay is a total Postal Service ripoff but [...]
No Comments » - Posted in General by Rick
Friday, August 28th, 2009
Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-08-28
Ochocinco kicks against the Pats…awesome! http://bit.ly/3zooN7 #
If libraries can lend ebooks, why can't we? #
Looking forward to the Tenth Inning on PBS next year: http://bit.ly/mV30W #
Atul Gawande profiel in the Harvard magazine…holla! http://bit.ly/wdQa3 #
Better yet, get the PDF version: http://bit.ly/3hTUMu #
