Friedrich --

Chris Bertram (here) recommends some books on political philosophy.

Eddie Thomas (here) and Aaron Haspel (here) analyze the lyrics of a song by the Derailers, a honky-tonk band.

Jim Miller (here) argues that a big majority of Iraqis want Saddam gone.

Polly Frost (here) writes about the upside and the downside of  William Gibson's new novel "Pattern Recognition."

Christopher Caldwell claims here that the only way to explain Jacques Chirac's refusal to join the anti-Saddam coalition  is that he's pandering to, er, catering to his own country's poor and disaffected Muslims.

Alexandra Ceely (here, though you have to scroll down about six postings) has an art-history lesson about Caravaggio's Judith and Holofernes.

Jim Ryan (here)  wonders whether to reduce his blogging schedule or to quit blogging completely, while Andrea Harris (here) spells out, in no uncertain terms, what the rules for taking part in the "comments" section of her blog now are.

A few years back, I stumbled across Timothy Taylor's audiotaped lecture series "Legacies of Great Economists" and found it a great help. It's beginning econ for those who fall asleep at the sight of an equation or a graph -- economics as seen through the lives and works of Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Schumpeter, etc. Taylor explains it all in straightforward English and his enthusiasm never flags. I notice that the Teaching Company is currently offering the package for sale here at the really amazing price of $15.95.

A new find: I stumbled across Charlie B's blog Here Inside (here) about a week ago and took to it instantly. It's everything a gayblog should be and more -- witty, cheerfully perverse, moving. Charlie rhapsodizes about classical music, gardening, and cute soccer players; reviews movies and books; makes observations about this and that; relishes what turns him on; and doesn't shy from the earnest and sincere when the moment calls for it. He also turns a heckuva blog posting -- he's one of the slyest and most stylish writers in the blogoverse.

And here's another interactive drawing/animation thingee. Impossible to describe, a lot of fun to play with, completely disruptive of all previous concepts of "drawing."

Best,

Michael

I tried out your interactive "drawing/animation thingee" and it's great. Actually, I've seem things like this in museums that must have taken enormous efforts for the artist to execute; here you can create a piece of animated "action painting" in seconds, no muss or fuss.

I wonder if this is what it was like for my grandparents, as the world around them suddenly sprouted cars, airplanes, radios, record players, television, etc. On a certain level, nothing was all that different, but on another, everything was different. Well, the slogan was right: the Internet does change everything.

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on March 27, 2003 12:30 AM

The drawing/animation "thingee" (yellowtail) was excellent! Sort of like japanese writing recreating itself and changing constantly. I wonder if there is a repeat point. I didn't wait long enough.

By the way, thanks for doing the advance surfing. Your choices, by and large are excellent...

I have seen a number of the Teaching Company tapes that look pretty tempting. Unfortunately, even the discounted prices I have seen advertised are too steep.

Posted by: Felicity on March 27, 2003 1:17 AM






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