VCRs are dangerous (4) Jan 5, 2011
Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, testifying to the House of Representatives in 1982: 
I say to you that the VCR is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.

However, if you are an advertiser who has paid $280,000 a minute to advertise, he feels a very large pain in his stomach as well as in his checkbook because it destroys the reason for free television, the erasure, the blotting out, the fast forwarding, the visual searching, the variable beta scans. The technology is there and I am one who has a belief that before the next few years the Japanese will have built into their machines an automatic situation that kills the commercial.
(via MarketWatch)

First of all, what a crybaby.  A technology that might take money out of the giant pockets of movie studios and advertising firms?  Boo-hoo.  Second, he was right.  Broadcast television used to be free; VCRs probably played at least a small role in destroying free TV. #entertainment
Brazil nut effect Jan 4, 2011
The Brazil nut effect is what makes the largest objects in a mixture of variously-sized objects end up on top, so named because of the tendency of Brazil nuts to always float to the top of a standard container of mixed nuts.  I just experienced this firsthand the other day! #science
Faraway parkers Jan 4, 2011
Some people drive nice cars, and when they enter a parking lot, they look for the spot farthest from the nearest car to minimize the chance of incidental impact.  This is actually a fairly wise decision, albeit ultimately futile.  It's wise because, like the last few Cheerios in a bowl of milk, objects in close proximity have a tendency to run into each other even when there is ample space (this is actually called collision cross section, as mentioned several years ago by Rich).  But it's futile because, simply put, people are stupider than Cheerios and will find a way to accidentally dent your nice new car.  Oftentimes, this behavior requires that faraway parkers walk a longer distance to get to their destination.  I have to respect this level of commitment to futility.  Most people instead value laziness over luxury. 

There's a guy who does this in the parking lot at work, and I'm forced to laugh at him on a daily basis.  When he arrives at around 8 a.m., the parking lot is relatively empty, but by midday it's completely full.  So the effort he takes to park far away from everyone else is completely nullified.  It's always fun to watch someone put a lot of effort into failure. #travel
Be a better person Jan 4, 2011
I heard someone say that their New Year's resolution is "to be a better person."  There are probably people who legitimately use that as one of their resolutions and might actually have some success with it, but to me -- and this will sound pretty mean coming from a fairly negative, crotchety, realistic misanthrope -- it's one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.  From a practical, objective standpoint, how would one measure the success or failure of this goal?  It's too vague to even quantify.  If you said, "My resolution is to let cars go ahead of me when merging," at least you could look back on your behavior and decide whether or not you succeeded.  Or maybe you could say, "I plan to be nice to the checkout people at the supermarket."  Then at least you'd have a legitimate, concrete model to which you could attempt adherence.  But "to be a better person"?  Seriously?  Why not say, "My resolution is to live." #psychology
Description vs. reality Jan 4, 2011
From a recent On the Media episode concerning descriptions of reality versus actual reality: 
And I would start out by asking you is anybody ever not making stuff up? When you pick up the newspaper and read about a news conference, let's say, somebody went to that news conference. You are not reading the entire transcript.

Something I often think about is Borges, the great Argentinean writer, who says that there are two universes. There is the universe of material reality, of bodies, of places, and there is the universe of words, and any attempt to shape a representation, of one in terms of the other is provisional at best. It is falling apart as we speak. It is something which he calls a fiction.
#entertainment
HTC blue guy Jan 3, 2011
I'm a big fan of the little blue guy from the HTC Surround commercial: 



He says, "Wow wow-wow-wow.  Wow."  I laugh every time I see him. #entertainment
College bowl game names Jan 3, 2011
I think something needs to be done about the names given to college football bowl games.  I realize these games are really just long commercials interrupted briefly by bits and pieces of college football, and as such, they need sponsors to pay for naming rights.  So things like the "Tostitos Fiesta Bowl" or the "Allstate Sugar Bowl" aren't all that bad.  But the "Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl" or the "AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl"?  Couldn't they pick a slightly more universal name than a regional restaurant or an obscure pyramid scheme drug store? #sports
Elf animals (1) Jan 3, 2011
My favorite scene from the movie Elf: 



Puffin:  Hey Buddy, wanna pick some snowberries?
Buddy:  Not now, Arctic Puffin! #entertainment