blog dot devon

inothernews: German artist Jan Vormann has gone around the...

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:45:14 -0500

German artist Jan Vormann has gone around the world, patching up holes in walls and other structures with Lego bricks. Now the New York Post says he’s gotten around to doing the same here in New York City, but only this one remains, on a building across from Penn Station in Manhattan.

Sadly, it’s started to fall apart, or has been vandalized. I left the pieces where I found them - on the sidewalk. The rest of Vormann’s “patch” is still there. Hopefully it’ll stay.

(Photo by yours truly; story via the New York Post)

patrickcassels: James Marsters (aka Spike from Buffy the...

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:59:26 -0500

patrickcassels:

James Marsters (aka Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) made a thoroughly badass debut as a monotheistic terrorist on last night’s Caprica. Most accurate way to describe this show: If Battlestar Galactica was The West Wing in space, Caprica is The Shield on another planet.

I love this analogy.

inothernews: Today in “Let’s Take This Show Seriously Based On...

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:47:45 -0500

inothernews:

Today in “Let’s Take This Show Seriously Based On Its Title.”

(via walkoffwalk.com)

thedailywhat: [lettherebeblogs.]

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:13:06 -0500

thedailywhat:

[lettherebeblogs.]

"School Spirit: Columbia wins this category, hands down. Granted, it was Senior Night, which is more..."

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:50:00 -0500

“School Spirit: Columbia wins this category, hands down. Granted, it was Senior Night, which is more likely to bring out a supportive crowd to send off graduating seniors, but the stands were packed and lively. All the elements are in place here: cheerleaders, a mascot (Roar-ee. Get it?), and last but not least, Columbia’s smart-ass student band (the Columbia University Marching Band, or C.U.M.B., as the kids call it). From the pregame introductions when they displayed a “Where’s Snooki?” sign for their New Jersey–based opponent, we knew we were in for a good time. We were right: After a questionable call on a shot-clock violation, they led a sing-songy chant ending in “You’re a bastard, referee.” (As you can probably guess, the band has seen its fair share of controversies.) Band members danced in the aisles during a rendition of “Hava Nagila.” And though we couldn’t hear a lot of what they were saying from our seats on the opposite side of the court, late in the game we’re pretty sure one of the chants involved the phrases “kill, kill, kill” and “murder, murder, mutilate.” That was maybe a bit too much — we were well into garbage time by this point — but hey, that’s school spirit to the extreme. Score: 10/10.”

- NY Magazine visits Columbia’s Levin Gymnasium and “notices” the Band. Awesome.

jess-agi: When you buy a Lady Gaga album, this is what you...

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:12:23 -0500

jess-agi:

When you buy a Lady Gaga album, this is what you fund.

inothernews: mattchew03: This kid deserves a swift kick in...

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 21:19:49 -0500

inothernews:

mattchew03:

This kid deserves a swift kick in the ass.

Dear James Whitaker:

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Think before you type.

Too late. You’re a jackass.

Local TV sports reporter just said to Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte, "You've got five (World Series) rings. Where does the NEXT one go?" and I had a relatively dirty answer teed up and ready to go.

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:48:29 -0500

inothernews:

Baseball is sooooooooo back.

Heh.

This makes me smile.

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:38:32 -0500

This makes me smile.

inothernews: thefrogman: How I prepared one Worfeus Preheat...

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:59:59 -0500

inothernews:

thefrogman:

How I prepared one Worfeus

Preheat Photoshop to 350º

Mix 1 part Morpheus with 1 part Worf

Blend 1 Starfleet regulation phaser rifle with 1 Heckler & Koch MP5K

Add 2 pinches of Nerd for flavor

Stir vigorously

Bake for 3 hours

Let cool for 10 minutes

Serve with Klingon Gagh

This is effin’ awesome. Also - and I could be wrong here - Worf is the most-aired principal in the Star Trek universe, having appeared in seven seasons of The Next Generation, four seasons of Deep Space Nine, and four TNG movies! Michael Dorn also played a descendant of Worf’s - Colonel Worf in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Badass!!!

Didn’t the Joker wear that purple suit in The Dark Knight?

ferrrn: Artwork I missed in last week’s issue. It hurts...

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:57:39 -0500

ferrrn:

Artwork I missed in last week’s issue.

It hurts because it’s not wrong.

rahmblr: Dec. 19, 2009 “Snowball in hand, the President...

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:29:41 -0500

rahmblr:

Dec. 19, 2009 “Snowball in hand, the President chases Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on the White House Colonnade. To escape, Rahm ran through the Rose Garden, which unfortunately for him, was knee-deep in snow.”

Sen. Snowe could not be reached for comment but was apparently unharmed.

Thanks for the heads up, Rebecca!

The Top Seven Classic Movie Moments You Didn't Know Were Improvised

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:42:27 -0500

The Top Seven Classic Movie Moments You Didn't Know Were Improvised

"Perhaps nowhere is this new wave more striking than at Columbia, which more than any other Ivy..."

Sat, 09 Jan 2010 14:03:05 -0500

“Perhaps nowhere is this new wave more striking than at Columbia, which more than any other Ivy League institution has thrown out a welcome mat for returning servicemen and women. There are 210 veterans across the university, integrating a campus whose image-defining moment in the past half-century was of violent protests against the Vietnam War.”

- With New G.I. Bill, More March From Battlefield to College - NYTimes.com

You know, despite all the things that the University frequently sucks at, this is something that makes me immensely proud of Columbia.

Got a question? Ask away!

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 22:12:49 -0500

Got a question? Ask away!

ilovecharts: rufus: National per capita healthcare spending...

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:03:41 -0500

ilovecharts:

rufus:

National per capita healthcare spending Vs. Life expectancy Vs. Number of doctor visits per year

Click to enlarge. I’m no economist, but, to my understanding, this is what happens when you allow private health insurance companies to disconnect between product and profit—they choose maximize profit. A proper governmental response would be to either rigorously control the quality of the product (regulation) or to remove profit from the equation altogether by making healthcare a government service (the much-discussed “public option”), but either way, it’s clear that a more active governmental approach is necessary. A responsible modern government simply cannot allow the free market to dictate the quality and cost of healthcare for its citizens.

This is going to be big as the House and Senate reconcile their approved versions of the healthcare reform legislation, especially considering whether or not the final product will include the Senate’s public option. The final bill will, of course, make use of a number of methods for helping the system, mixing regulation of the private sector with government-run services with direct funding to certain problem areas in need of support. The real question will be how these different pieces are balanced; will we be seeing reform that continues to rely on private insurance companies, albeit with (hopefully) more active governmental oversight, or will we see a shift towards federally-administered healthcare for Americans under the age of 65? Yes, it’s all shades of gray here, but that doesn’t mean the hue doesn’t matter.

Just some food for thought: the overhead for American private health insurance companies runs usually averages between 12 and 14 percent, and sometimes goes even higher than 30 percent (usually in the cases of individuals seeking insurance on their own rather than through an employer), which, as with the above graph, explains why Americans are paying the highest premiums in exchange for a below-average product; American insurance companies spend huge amounts of time, manpower, and paper on making sure their customers jump through all the hoops before receiving their service, and then pay for those operating costs by passing them on to those same consumers. That’s right—you’re paying your insurance company to find ways to deny you service. As for Medicare, the country’s only federally-run universal (among seniors, that is) healthcare program? An average overhead of 3 percent. Think about it.

"What is the most clever insult involving your name that you’ve heard? Well I’m pretty jaded over..."

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:46:00 -0500

“What is the most clever insult involving your name that you’ve heard?

Well I’m pretty jaded over last name related insults because I’ve heard them all, but in 7th grade a boy told me he wanted to dock his boat in my marina. I thought it was pretty creative to avoid the obvious joke and take things to a whole new traumatizing level.”

- Marina Cockenberg being funny as hell.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:07:46 -0500

Happy Birthday, Dad.

"I don’t want to die on an airplane. I don’t want to die in my home while eating an..."

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:57:13 -0500

“I don’t want to die on an airplane. I don’t want to die in my home while eating an organic bagel infested with parasites that lay eggs on my liver. I don’t want to die from starvation or bad water or a thousand other things that I pay our government to monitor and regulate.

But I also don’t expect the government to protect from the literally endless possibilities and threats that could occur at any point to end my life or the life of the few I love. It’s been nearly a decade since terrorists used airplanes to attack our country, and last week’s attempt makes it clear that the lack of terrorist attacks have nothing to do with the increasing gauntlet of whirring machines, friskings, and arbitrary bureaucratic provisions, but simply that for the most part, there just aren’t that many terrorists trying to blow up planes. Because god knows if there were, the TSA isn’t capable of stopping them.”

- “President Obama, It’s Time To Fire the TSA” by Joel Johnson

"There were a total of 674 passengers, not counting crew or the terrorists themselves, on the flights..."

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:26:00 -0500

“There were a total of 674 passengers, not counting crew or the terrorists themselves, on the flights on which these incidents occurred. By contrast, there have been 7,015,630,000 passenger enplanements over the past decade. Therefore, the odds of being on given departure which is the subject of a terrorist incident have been 1 in 10,408,947 over the past decade. By contrast, the odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are about 1 in 500,000. This means that you could board 20 flights per year and still be less likely to be the subject of an attempted terrorist attack than to be struck by lightning.”

- FiveThirtyEight: The Odds of Airborne Terror