Occam’s RazR

'Pop culture' Category

• The Math of Sin

  I saw a headline today, referring to the Eliot Spitzer saga:
  The Spitzer Scandal: Lust Plus Pride
  Then, I recalled seeing this attempt to explain the Seven Deadly Sins (from Jessica Hagy):

  According to Jessica’s chart, Lust + Pride = Trophy Wife.
  So, using the Associative Property of Addition, we can see that:
  The Spitzer Scandal = Trophy Wife.
  A fun, [...]

  March 11th, 2008

• An Angry Man

  Every day or so, I post interesting links over to the side. They’re called “RazR’s Choice Cuts from the Web.” While I tend to focus on various aspects of communication, persuasion, and explanation, the Choice Cuts can vary wildly. You’ll find articles and essays about a wide array of topics:

  Culture
  Pop culture
  Strange crime
  Political [...]

  February 25th, 2008

• The Art of the Insult

  I’ll come back to this after some reflection, but for a quick end-of-the-week read, here is a piece of brilliantly pointed writing from Slate.com’s review of Meet the Spartans:
  Isn’t it massive consumer fraud to charge $10.50 for a barely hour-long movie? Perhaps, but it would’ve been unforgivable to make Meet the Spartans any longer than [...]

  January 31st, 2008

• An Ounce of Prevention

  Well, it’s finally time to unveil an idea I’ve been kicking around.
  Are you tired of following links on websites, only to get “Rick Rolled?” If you’ve had it happen to you, you might be interested in a Firefox browser plugin that would automatically proxy any links leading to YouTube or other video sites, and [...]

  January 17th, 2008

• Coattails and Drafting

  It used to be considered an insult to say that someone or something was “riding the coattails” of something popular. For politicians, it is a back-handed sleight meant to diminish the accomplishments of a winning candidate. In other fields, it’s an implication that somehow the project or achievement is a fluke, and would [...]

  January 15th, 2008