Month: March 2012

Dynasty And Democracy

Suzy Khimm explores the complicated link: 

[A]lthough political dynasties may reinforce or exacerbate inequality due to income, they can also make political power more accessible to other underrepresented groups, [UNICEF economist Ronald] Mendoza acknowledges. "One study of political dynasties in the US Congress showed how dynasties helped to improve the gender balance in the US Congress, by allowing more female legislators to get in via their familial ties," he writes, citing a 2009 paper. The so-called widow effect has subsided in recent decades, but family connections are still a key method of entrance for women into Congress.

Are They Any Original Rom-Coms Out There?

If the above trailer isn't enough to deter you from seeing Friends With Kids, hopefully Andrew O'Hehir's review will kill off any temptation. A wider shot:

Twenty-odd years after Meg Ryan’s fake orgasm in Katz’s Deli, the rules established by [Nora] Ephron remain essentially the same. As distinct from classic romantic comedy, the two lovers don’t have to be chaste; they can sleep with any number of other people, and even with each other, before reaching the final kiss. (Bi-curious exploration remains at the outer edges of rom-com possibility, but it wouldn’t, strictly speaking, violate the rules.) Their banter is snappy, frank and laden with semi-forbidden gags about politics, religion and sex; if in Ephron’s heyday a PG-13 rating was often sufficient, today date-night legitimacy requires a hard R.

O'Hehir offers up (500) Days of Summer as a rare example of "flout[ing] the Ephron formula."

Friendship For Hire

Ezra Klein puts the K Street under the microscope:

In many cases, the lobbyist actually is the politician’s friend. She is his former staffer, or a colleague he used to see three times a week at the congressional gym. After all, there are any number of wealthy, well-connected people who might like to bend a senator’s ear. But senators have limited time and busy schedules. They can’t make space for every supplicant with a thick bill roll and a fat rolodex. And so clever lobbying shops have figured out a way to get to politicians: hire their friends. Hire the people they have already demonstrated an interest in talking to, and accepting counsel from.

Help With Heroin

Jesse Singal reviews a new study supporting the view that treating heroin addiction with heroin is more effective than methadone:

The [North American Opiate Medication Initiative] numbers are striking: A year after the start of the study, nearly 90% of those given heroin remained in treatment, while just over half in the methadone group did. … HAT, also known as heroin maintenance, is based on the premise that while methadone treatment is effective by many standards, most methadone users end up back on heroin or other opiates eventually—either with or without methadone supplementing their habit. Since the search for heroin is, in many ways, more harmful to society than the use of it, methadone may have important limitations as a means of mitigating the damage done by heroin addiction.

“It’s not controversial in either [Switzerland or the Netherlands],” said Peter Reuter, a policy analyst at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, “and in Switzerland it’s been there for so long that people have forgotten that it was once controversial.”

The Village Voice covered a far more controversial approach to heroin addiction:

Taken in sufficient quantity, [root bark from the tabernanthe iboga plant] triggers a psychedelic experience that users say is more intense than LSD or psilocybin mushrooms.

Practitioners of the Bwiti religion in the West African nation of Gabon use iboga root bark as a sacrament to induce visions in tribal ceremonies, similar to the way natives of South and Central America use ayahuasca and peyote. [Claire] Wilkins is one of a few dozen therapists worldwide who specialize in the use of iboga (more specifically, a potent extract called ibogaine) to treat drug addiction. …

Ibogaine and iboga root bark are illegal in the United States but unregulated in many countries, including Canada and Mexico. Wilkins, though, is hardly alone in her belief that iboga-based substances can be used as a legitimate treatment for drug addiction. Researchers at respected institutions have conducted experiments and ended up with hard evidence that the compound works—as long as you don’t mind the mindfuck.

A Dish reader talked about his mindfuck here. More ibogaine testimonials and resources here. Caption for the above clip:

Short sequence from my BBC broadcast documentary Detox or Die. This was for BBC’s “ONE Life” strand. A documentary biopic of my junk addiction that culminates in my attempt to detox with ibogaine. This African visionary drug has, however, been linked to several fatalities and has some rather unpleasant side effects. Heavy stuff but ultimately redeeming.

(Video hat tip: IBO-Radio)

The Web Recreates Itself In Comments

Todd Van Der Werff puzzles over his review of Community's midseason finale – which to date has over 33,000 comments and is still going strong:

In the time since the show went off the air, the dedicated group posting in the thread has become a weird A.V. Club within The A.V. Club, just like in Synecdoche, New York, though we don’t know if the group is also publishing a miniature newspaper and website within the newspaper and website. Not all 30,000 posts are about Community, probably inevitably, though many of them are. There’s the usual Community quote and picture spam, but there are also earnest analyses of the ratings performances of the show and its main competition for renewal, reviews of nearly every episode of season one (including one by this dumb-ass), and live blogs of the Republican presidential debates (seriously).

Does The Color Pink Exist?

No, according to Robert Krulwich:

[W]hat this video says is that there is no such thing as a band of wavelengths that mix red and violet, and therefore, pink is not a real wavelength of light. That's why pink is an invention. It's not a name we give to something out there. Pink isn't out there. 

Michael Moyer corrects him:

Pink is not out there, because no color is really "out there." The world is full of electromagnetic radiation, and the only intrinsic properties that this radiation possesses are physical ones such as wavelength and intensity. Color, on the other hand, is all in your head. 

The Future Of Nuclear Power

The Economist worries about the industry: 

Whether it comes to benefit from carbon pricing or not, nuclear power would be more competitive if it were cheaper. Yet despite generous government research-and-development programmes stretching back decades, this does not look likely. Innovation tends to thrive where many designs can compete against each other, where newcomers can get into the game easily, where regulation is light. Some renewable-energy technologies meet these criteria, and are getting cheaper as a result. But there is no obvious way for nuclear power to do so. Proponents say small, mass-produced reactors would avoid some of the problems of today’s behemoths. But for true innovation such reactors would need a large market in which to compete against each other. Such a market does not exist.

Ad War Update: Southern Tuesday

With Alabama and Mississippi hours away from voting, the Gingrich campaign revisits Obamneycare: 

Newt also takes on Mitt's electability argument (which tends to convince voters who decide at the last minute): 

Gingrich has also unleashed Chuck Norris in the Deep South: 

Meanwhile, Pro-Romney Super PAC Restore Our Future is still distributing anti-Santorum mailers in Alabama: 

Santorumfelons

Previous Ad War Updates: 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.

The Daily Wrap

Today on the Dish, Andrew penned an encomium to the Conservative-led drive towards marriage equality in Britain, situated the Cathlolic Church's attitudes towards homosexuality at the heart of its troubles, and noted that the openness of The New Republic's top gay brass was a sign of the times (follow-up on TNR's new direction here). We collected reax to the murder of Afghan civilians by a deranged American soldier, were sickened by Fox Nation's response to the massacre, examined the pschology surrounding the drive to war with Iran, listened to an expert Holocaust historian on whether Iran was a similar level of threat, flagged an amusing cartoon about AIPAC, worried about Syria's long war, and saw tragedy unfold for Iraqi youth.

Andrew also acknowledged the election could well be close, guessed at what motivated Sheldon Adelson to donate the way that he does, and gaped at the above instance of Palinsanity. No one knew who was going to win tomorrow's primaries in Alabama and Mississippi (seriously, no one knew), Deep South bigotry lived on, Santorum attempted to keep Romney under 50% of delegates despite Newt's obstruction, and Mitt dominated the early voting rounds. Ad War Update here.

Finally, Andrew explained the last ever round of Ask Andrew Anything and the new Ask Anything series that would replace it. A cashless world seemed likely to have a middling effect on crime, computers were today's architectural marvels, the GIF (re)took the internet by storm, typing altered our thinking, driverless cars eliminated traffic lights, and the first Monday of Daylight Savings time caused lazy web surfing to surge. DST also didn't cause people to save electricity, fasting offered an end-around past jetlag, band-aids mailed to bone-marrow clinics saved lives, changing routine fixed bad habits, and humans couldn't OD on pot (but dogs could). Victorian London was photographed, a man broke his penis, and a British beard mashup baited the Dish. Malkin Nominee here, VFYA(irplane)W here, VFYW here, MHB here, and FOTD here.

The Art Of The GIF

First, a history:

Alex Balk double-takes:

Is it really pronounced "jiff"? Because if so I have been embarrassing myself for years now.

Christine Erickson elaborates on the video:

As technology advanced, using GIFs became an outdated, less fashionable format. According to Patrick Davison of MemeFactory, the format began to increase in popularity again around 2007 or 2008. "People started to realize that you can use GIFs for tons of different things," says Davison. "And now that we’re in 2012 there’s more GIFs online, but you also have way more places to put them." Sites such as Reddit, Tumblr, WordPress and even Twitter are all, to some extent, content-curating sites that have created what Davison calls "post-modern GIFs."

"Humans really like repetition — we feel comfortable with it — and sometimes just the longer you watch something, the funnier it gets or it will actually change meaning," says TopherChris, Tumblr’s community manager and editorial director.

Erickson also points to the next level of GIF art, the cinemagraph, a series of still images with subtle moving elements. For a heavy dose of GIF-ness, check out Ann Friedman's "International Slutty Women's Day: A Story in GIFs". Another great use of GIF art after the jump: