June 24, 2008

That’s Mr. Dogg To You

The Columbia Journalism Review on rappers’ aliases:

“At the Times, the penalty for being a rapper is twofold: you are routinely called out on your birth name (no matter how nerdy and ironic it might be), and you rarely are addressed as “Mr.” This nominal double standard surfaces from time to time in hip-hop articles throughout the mainstream press, but due to the Times’s extensive urban-music coverage and its eternal struggle with honorific conformity, rap handles seem to inspire more copy dilemmas there.”

Comments 1 Comment »


April 17, 2008

Your Hatred of This Song Is A Statistical Certainty

record.jpg

From The Stencil:

In collaboration with Komar and Melamid, composer Dave Soldier extended the project to the musical realm in 1997. Soldier polled over 500 people to determine the characteristics of the “most unwanted music.” His findings:

The most unwanted music is over 25 minutes long, veers wildly between loud and quiet sections, between fast and slow tempos, and features timbres of extremely high and low pitch, with each dichotomy presented in abrupt transition. The most unwanted orchestra was determined to be large, and features the accordion and bagpipe (which tie at 13% as the most unwanted instrument), banjo, flute, tuba, harp, organ, synthesizer (the only instrument that appears in both the most wanted and most unwanted ensembles). An operatic soprano raps and sings atonal music, advertising jingles, political slogans, and “elevator” music, and a children’s choir sings jingles and holiday songs. The most unwanted subjects for lyrics are cowboys and holidays, and the most unwanted listening circumstances are involuntary exposure to commercials and elevator music. Therefore, it can be shown that if there is no covariance–someone who dislikes bagpipes is as likely to hate elevator music as someone who despises the organ, for example–fewer than 200 individuals of the world’s total population would enjoy this piece.

Armed with this information, Soldier produced the Most Unwanted Music.

Photo: Kate Tomlinson

Comments 1 Comment »


April 15, 2008

Like You Really Needed Another Reason To Avoid These Godawful Things

nocrocs.jpg

Crocs, the garden clogs that somehow were mistaken for acceptable non-garden-related footwear, will no longer be made in Quebec, leaving 600 out of work:

Production from the Quebec City plant will move to plants in Mexico, Brazil, China and Romania, while about 100 sales and marketing jobs will remain in the city, a company spokeswoman told Bloomberg.

Photo: Sumlin

Comments 2 Comments »


April 14, 2008

An Unorthodox Alternative to NSERC for Faculty Funding

From the Whig-Standard, a very strange report of an RMC engineering prof’s Sopranos-style shakedown of his graduate students:

A Royal Military College professor has lost his engineering licence and his job after demanding four-figure loans from students he supervised at the college.

Mohamed Farooq, a senior engineering professor who specialized in target tracking and who held a Level II “Secret” security clearance, had his engineering licence suspended last week for two years by Professional Engineers Ontario, the professional licensing body, following a series of disciplinary hearings.

The panel of fellow engineers found that he had pressured students under his charge to advance him sums of money ranging from $1,500 to $9,000 apiece over the previous six years, sometimes driving them to banks and ATMs to get the money.

He did not repay, or only partially repaid, many of the loans until the college became involved.

Comments 1 Comment »


April 14, 2008

The Agony Of The Unsupported Lede

glasses.jpg

Ironic Sans teases us with the following:

I’ve noticed lately that there seem to be four distinct ways that people push up their glasses, and yet not a single study has been done about this. “10 Things You Can Tell About Your Man By How He Pushes Up His Glasses” seems like a perfect headline for a women’s magazine in the supermarket checkout line, and yet nobody is doing this important research. So here’s an overview.

But, alas, provides only a taxonomy of pushing-up styles, not the promised psychological insight into the glasses-pusher. Whatever it means, I’m definitely more of the style-three glasses pusher. But aware that it contributes to a not-necessarily-flattering bookishness, I suppose I’m aspiring to style two.

Comments 2 Comments »


« Older Entries