Words I’d like to retire in 2012
Utilize. Common usage: “We’ll utilize our phones if we run into trouble.”
- Face it; you’re just going to use the phone as it was designed, and you don’t need to add two more syllables. Preferred phrase: “We’ll use our phones if we run into trouble.” Unless of course you’re planning on utilizing them as blunt objects in a fight, or some creative MacGyver-esque method. If you are, by all means, utilize away.
Interface. Common usage: “Let’s interface on that after lunch.”
- You’re not a computer and neither are they. This also isn’t 1995. You’re going to “communicate;” more than likely you’re going to “discuss something.” That’s what people do. We are people. Remember that; it really should not be that difficult.
Gifted. Common usage: “I gifted that scarf to her.”
- The most annoying thing about this word is that it makes the user sound like they think they’re on Seinfeld. You’re not on Seinfeld; you are even more annoying than the people on Seinfeld. “Gifted” means you have skills or talent, using it this way proves that neither is true. Preferred phrase: “I gave that scarf to her.”
What it is, is. Common usage: “What it is, is a bad idea.”
- What it is, is a stupid way to say something by using an entire phrase as a noun. Get to the point already. Preferred phrase: “This is a bad idea.”
Scads. Common usage: “We had scads of work to do.”
- A scad is a fish. In this use it has no concrete meaning and sounds disgusting. Preferred phrase: “We had a shit-ton of work to do.” This is much less ambiguous and more clear.
Bling. Common usage: “I’m wearing my bling tonight.”
- Are the diamonds in your teeth, or hanging from your ears? If it’s the latter, then it’s just “jewelry.” Seriously, it’s okay to get a little dressed up without pretending like you’re going off to DJ somewhere.
Literally. Common usage: “I literally almost died when I saw him.”
- No you didn’t. You figuratively almost died when you saw him. It’s a figure of speech, not an actual event. To say you literally almost died would mean you had a heart attack and you had to be revived in the ambulance. Did that happen? No. Preferred phrase: None. Stop talking in public if you’re considering this word in this context.
No worries. Common usage: “Sorry I spilled that boiling coffee on your leg.” “No worries.”
- Unless you follow it up with “mate” and have a down-under accent you sound like an isolated teenager. Preferred phrase for Americans: “That’s alright, I don’t have feeling in my leg anyway.” or “That’s okay. I’ll send you the dry-cleaning bill,” or most likely, “Fuck you man, that hurt like hell.”
Synergy.
- I can’t even bring myself to make a sentence. I’m as pleased as anyone about increasing efficiency by bringing things together, but most of the time you’re just cooperating, ok? If synergies happened as often as this word is used, the world’s productivity rate would have rendered it uninhabitable by now.
Ok, rant over. I’m done here.
Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut
Finally, the crowd-sourced project has been stitched together and put online for your streaming pleasure. The Director’s Cut is a feature-length film that contains hand-picked scenes from the entire StarWarsUncut.com collection.
Many thanks to Aaron Valdez (video editor) and Bryan Pugh (sound design/mixing) for the countless hours they put into this masterpiece.
The Story:
In 2009, thousands of Internet users were asked to remake “Star Wars: A New Hope” into a fan film, 15 seconds at a time. Contributors were allowed to recreate scenes from Star Wars however they wanted. Within just a few months SWU grew into a wild success. The creativity that poured into the project was unimaginable.
SWU has been featured in documentaries, news features and conferences around the world for its unique appeal. In 2010 we won a Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media.
We can’t thank everyone enough for making this such a special project.
(via sonicbloom11)
Source: starwarsuncut
In other words, contemporary liberalism offers religious groups a choice. They can try to serve the widest possible population, in which case a liberal administration will set rules that force them to violate their conscience. Or they can serve a narrower one, in which case liberal journalists will sneer at them (and their most generous benefactors) for only caring about their co-religionists.
OR, they (Christian groups anyway) can follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, and focus on serving “the least among you,” as Jesus put it, regardless of their origin, and avoid both of those problems.
Believe it or not, some congregations do this. But in order to do so, to do as Christ commanded, they have to stop thinking of their religion as an exclusive club, but as an open group in service to humanity. Douthat and many, many others are apparently reluctant to go that far.
“If you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?” -Matthew 5:47
It’s a pretty radical idea, I know, but then Jesus was a fairly radical figure. And still is, frankly. If serving a wide population violates your conscience, you’re following a different Jesus altogether; He said to serve everyone.
Religious Giving and Its Critics - NYTimes.com (via ayjay)
(via ayjay)
Source: The New York Times
Submit a quote.
Submit something timeless in its acknowledgement of the human condition.
Or something irrelevant to it.
Source: gokustom
Source: brooklynmutt
You know, I always assumed that those cartoon mascots who were hardcore addicted to breakfast cereal were just overreacting.
I mean, how addictive can sugary breakfast cereal be, anyway?
But I’ve had like six bowls of Honeycombs this morning and I can’t seem to stop and I’m starting to think that those commercials were just public service announcements about the addictive nature of breakfast cereals.
see this guy
this guy is not okay
DON’T BE LIKE HIM. SAY NO TO BREAKFAST CEREAL.
Source: gingerhaze
What is her story?
Photo © Bruce Davidson
This was one of my favorite things as a kid. We had a window seat that I could stand on and sit fully behind the curtains on the windowsill. It made a tiny little room with a giant window. I would sit in there during summer rains and draw shapes with the drops in the window screen. As long as I was hidden from the room I felt like I was in a totally secret place, despite the fact that I was almost half outside, despite the fact I was visible through the curtains and that my feet even stuck out from below.
(via halfstrippedtrees)
Source: edelmangallery.com
DLZ - TV on the Radio
Good tune.
I went through a period shortly after this album came out where this song, and only this song, was on repeat continuously. I think I’m going to play it on my radio show tonight.
I almost did the same; instead I just hit “repeat” over and over for a week. Incredible song.
Source: tychokepler
Crime has not fallen in the United States—it’s been shifted. Just as Wall Street connived with regulators to transfer financial risk from spendthrift banks to careless home buyers, so have federal, state, and local legislatures succeeded in rerouting criminal risk away from urban centers and concentrating it in a proliferating web of hyperhells. The statistics touting the country’s crime-reduction miracle, when juxtaposed with those documenting the quantity of rape and assault that takes place each year within the correctional system, are exposed as not merely a lie, or even a damn lie—but as the single most shameful lie in American life.
Source: nplusonemag.com
People often found it difficult to understand how impressed they should be.
Eeckhout, 1652
Source: shallowsage
Yes, you can make money without exploiting the poor, but...
I was (briefly) a guest on a BBC World Service radio program this morning discussing Obama’s state of the union speech and income inequality in general. To my mind, this has always been a no-brainer. My argument is: we’ve done this experiment (of lowering taxes on the rich) twice now, once in the 1920’s and again in the 1980’s (and doubled-down in 2000). We have also done the control experiment. Between 1945 and 1980 top marginal tax rates in the U.S. ranged from 70 to 90%.
The results are clear: high marginal rates correlate with broad-based economic prosperity and an expanding middle class. Low marginal rates correlate with extreme income inequality, reduced prosperity overall, and ultimately, economic catastrophe.
Source: azspot
