Month: March 2012

Alan Jacobs is amazed by how quickly Apple transformed from a "marginal company" into "the largest company in the world":

Everything moves faster in a wired world, including the pace of change in business. AT&T may have dominated American communications for a century, but now economic shifts are happening at Koyaanisqatsi speed. A decade from now the landscape of the technology business will sure look very different than it does today. Maybe by 2022 Apple and Amazon will be marginal companies once again — underdogs that I can feel good about supporting. 

Debbie Lum, a Chinese-American filmmaker, captures it:

The male lead was a mixed blessing:

Steven was, Lum says, her worst nightmare — the kind of guy she’d spent most of her life trying to avoid. But he was also an irresistible character, and, she thought, a perfect subject to illustrate the deeply dubious nature of the "yellow fever" phenomenon. "He seems to have a broken filter," she says — freely giving Lum unabashed access to thoughts that others might discreetly choose to keep in the vault.

The Iraqi government hasn't helped the victims:

When the Iraqi media got wind of the story, they made the situation worse, by spreading rumors that some Iraqi kids were becoming Satanists, vampires, and breaking Islamic mores. On March 8, the Interior Ministry issued a press release saying that any reporting about attacks upon emos were fabrications, and warning anyone of spreading such rumors.

Six days later, security forces detained reporters from Russia Today for three hours who were trying to film a story about the emo killings. All of these reports about the Interior Ministry came after the Education Ministry, back in August 2011, told schools to stop the spread of emo culture. Then on March 18, it issued a statement saying that it was going to ask schools to enforce a dress code to stop the spread of emo culture. This series of statements and actions obviously helped lay the basis for the current situation in the capital over alternative youth. Calling emos Satanists and other alarmist names could have given tactic approval for traditionalists and militants to go after them, and give them the feeling of impunity since the authorities had condemned the kids.

Breaking news: the US defense budget dwarfs all others:

(Hat tip: Mother Jones)

In 1937, Carl Crow traced the beginnings of American Chinese food to San Francisco's Gold Rush:

The white men had heard the usual sailor yarns about what these pigtailed yellow men ate, and one night a crowd of miners decided they would try this strange fare just to see what it was like. They had been told that Chinese ate rats and they wanted to see whether or not it was true. When they got to the restaurant the regular customers had finished their suppers, and the proprietor was ready to close his doors. But the miners demanded food, so he did the best he could to avoid trouble and get them out of the way as soon as possible. He went out into the kitchen, dumped together all the food his Chinese patrons had left in their bowls, put a dash of Chinese sauce on top and served it to his unwelcome guests. As they didn’t understand Cantonese slang they didn’t know what he meant when he told them that they were eating chop suey, or “beggar hash.” At any rate, they liked it so well that they came back for more and in that chance way the great chop suey industry was established.

Peter Smith casts doubt on the story:

[A]s historian Andrew Coe writes in Chop Suey, is that the Sze Yap-born residents of San Francisco’s Chinatown were eating shap suì as an honest reinterpretation of Cantonese home cooking before white San Franciscans "discovered" the dish. Coe says the story appears to stem from something else: "The tale about the bullying of the Chinese restaurant owner does ring true and the punch line about eating garbage suggests a veiled revenge (analogous to a chef spitting in the soup) for decades of mistreatment. Call it a myth that conveys a larger historical truth."

The Romney campaign gets personal: 

Santorum is hitting back with a playful national radio spot accusing Romney of telling Puerto Ricans what they wanted to hear ("Where does Romney stand on the issues? It all depends on who he's standing in front of").  In a spot running in Illinois, Romney goes after Obama and the "Gas Hike Trio": 

Is Romney co-opting the Gingrich gas delusion? 

Newt Gingrich, who has spent the past month advocating for his energy plan — which he says would drive gas prices down to $2.50 per gallon — has started to develop ownership of the issue. Nationwide gas prices continued to rise Monday, hitting $3.84 per gallon as a national average.  Earlier this month, while campaigning in Georgia, Romney suggested Gingrich's plan was a "pander." But Gingrich sharply contested that critique, saying he would happily debate Romney on rising fuel prices. 

This Gingrich ad attacks the Obama administration along very similar lines: 

Previous Ad War Updates: Mar 16, Mar 15, Mar 14, Mar 13, Mar 12, Mar 9, Mar 8, Mar 7, Mar 6, Mar 5, Mar 2, Mar 1, Feb 29, Feb 28, Feb 27, Feb 23, Feb 22, Feb 21, Feb 17, Feb 16, Feb 15, Feb 14, Feb 13, Feb 9, Feb 8, Feb 7, Feb 6, Feb 3, Feb 2, Feb 1, Jan 30, Jan 29, Jan 27, Jan 26, Jan 25, Jan 24, Jan 22, Jan 20, Jan 19, Jan 18, Jan 17, Jan 16 and Jan 12.

Today on the Dish, Andrew reupped his defense of Democratic fiscal conservatism over the GOP's profligacy, argued that Obama and Cameron's respective fiscal strategies made sense in the context of each of their countries, spotted the "critical bad play" in the debt ceiling negotiations, explained why Catholics were rejecting Santorum and the Church hierarchy, noted Romney's new spin on the economy, and called out Drudge for merging with the Romney campaign. We noted Romney's significant victory in Puerto Rico (and its undercoverage by the press), previewed a potential blowout in Illinois, and gaped at Gingrich's perseverence. Readers debated Alexandra Pelosi's Obama voter "expose," American voting looked pretty tribal, and presidential rhetorical power was pretty limited.

Andrew also introduced the poll for "Ask Jonah Lehrer Anything," flagged both a great PSA on being gay in hockey and a horrific interview with Tony Blair and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf on the latter's support for laws banning homosexual sex, got angry about the Dharun Ravi verdict, and uncovered a truly repellent instance of Church corruption. We grabbed reax to the Mike Daisey Apple-In-China fiasco, guessed an Iran war could never be won, and saw Gitmo assimilate its opponents. The Catholic hierarchy didn't always hate gays, an abortion in Texas was excruciating, and the sex offender registry had unintended consequences. Obamacare's legality came up for debate in anticipation of next week's case, domestic oil appeared unlikely to solve high gas prices, cities greened, and ways to increase creative thinking got examined.

We told you to relax and get bored, cautioned against over-optimism, rubbished human nature, watched detectives use data to succeed, marvelled at the consequences of global warming, and broke down why decaf coffee tasted terrible. The Hunger Games discussion went on, films critics ceased to matter, Luck's luck ran out after one-too-many killed horses, and another reader kept up up the discussion of gore in fiction. Hathos Alert here, Hathos Red Alert here, AAA here, Chart of the Day here, Quote of the Day here, MHB here, VFYW here, and FOTD here.

– Z.B.

When good intentions go bad:

Patrick Caldwell castigates the coverage of Romney's triumph as compared to other caucuses:

Romney won 88 percent of the vote, shutting out Rick Santorum from collecting any new delegates. The estimated 22 delegates Romney collected in Puerto Rico are three more than Santorum won in Alabama and 13 more than he reaped in Mississippi. Yet scan the newspapers this morning and you'll find scant coverage of the caucus. Unlike the state's Santorum won last week, Romney's dominating victory hasn't triggered a series of articles questioning whether the state of the race has been overturned.  …

However Illinois shakes out, the best Santorum can likely hope for is a close split with Romney, perhaps granting him around 35 of the state's 69 delegates. Those delegates don’t have a higher value just because they are gleaned from a tighter race.

Steve Benen is equally unhappy with the Romney campaign's attempt to spin the caucus win as proof of his ability to appeal to Latinos:

In case the GOP frontrunner has forgotten, take a look at the latest Fox News Latino poll:

[O]n the left, the columns show Obama's edge over the GOP nominee in 2008, when exit polls showed McCain losing this constituency by 36 points. On the right, those columns show Obama's advantage over Romney among Latino voters. "Those people who don't think that Latinos will vote for a Republican need to take a look at Puerto Rico"? Let's be serious — Romney drove Latinos away to curry favor with his right-wing base. A primary win doesn't change that fact.

An excessively large dose of violent entertainment for all you superfans of The Simpsons:

A reader writes:

I'd like to add a bit of nuance to this reader's argument: "This is not a disconnect; one simply has to understand that people have an aversion to having information censored from them." The reason I would choose not to watch a de-bloodied version of a movie or TV show is the same reason I wouldn't watch the especially bloody or crazy "unrated" versions that are sometimes released for certain films (e.g., lots of gross-out comedies): I want to watch the film as the creator intended it. That means I want her edits only, and not the edits of some prude from the MPAA. Ditto for the inclusion of scenes of gore, sex, language, or poop that she thought were better left on the cutting room floor.

(Hat tip: Buzzfeed)