the pitch

Henri Langlois

monti rock III kills at don't tell momas NYC

"There is no doubt that we are living in a time of total aestheticization. This fact is often interpreted as a sign that we have reached a state after the end of history, or a state of total exhaustion that makes any further historical action impossible. However, as I have tried to show, the nexus between total aestheticization, the end of history, and the exhaustion of vital energies is illusionary. Using the lessons of modern and contemporary art, we are able to totally aestheticize the world—i.e., to see it as being already a corpse—without being necessarily situated at the end of history or at the end of our vital forces. One can aestheticize the world—and at the same time act within it. In fact, total aestheticization does not block political action; it enhances it. Total aestheticization means that we see the current status quo as already dead, already abolished. And it means further that every action that is directed towards the stabilization of the status quo will ultimately show itself as ineffective—and every action that is directed towards the destruction of the status quo will ultimately succeed. Thus, total aestheticization not only does not preclude political action; it creates an ultimate horizon for successful political action, if this action has a revolutionary perspective." -bg

nyc italian goes gf. 

wtf pepe! he shouldn't have been on this team with his history. estupido!

with all the other goings on i almost forgot that lebron & co face elimination tonight in san antonio. he had 17 in the first quarter so maybe he can will them back to miami for a game six by himself.

summer reading?

RIP UV

i just realized that it is an almost certainty that i was out last night with a pair of mismatched black adidas sneakers, one with black soles and one white. the germans must have thought i was representing their team. i was not.

Institute for the Study of War Iraq Updates has a ton of detailed information on what's going on in Iraq. Like any source you have to be critical of course (the parent organization, The Institute for the Study of War, is led by Dr. Kimberly Kagan, wife of Fred Kagan,) but I haven't been able to find in depth reporting like this anywhere else.

four matches today at noon 3, 6 and 9....

already another embarassing wrong decision by the referee in the mexico-cameroon match erasing a beautiful goal by mexico. this time it was a bad call on offsides. there is no reason that on penalty calls like the one yesterday in the brazil-croatia match and this one that a replay system could not be considered. but the soccer bureaucracy is as backwards as the kremlin in its heyday so i wouldnt expect it anytime soon.

big game today at 3pm is the rematch between the two finalists in the 2010 world cup that being spain v. netherlands. the dutch have fallen off a bit in the intervening years but still are plenty talented to upset spain.

Tesla goes open source

Vessyl is the Yves Béhar designed smart cup that knows exactly what you're drinking. It connects to your iPhone over bluetooth, identifies drinks, nutritional content, along with how much of what you drink. 

Let's cut to the chase: while I only had an hour with a Vessyl prototype, I tried nearly a dozen beverages in it -- and it successfully identified all of them. Within 10 seconds, the device, which currently resembles more of a Thermos than a finished product, recognized Crush orange soda, Vitamin Water XXX, Tropicana orange juice, Gatorade Cool Blue, plain-old water, and a few other beverages, all by name. Yes, this cup knows the difference between Gatorade Cool Blue and Glacier Freeze.

letterman and seinfeld talk comedians, cars & coffee.

opening remarks and early match-ups. first game between brazil and croatia is on at 4pm. 

i do love this shot of messi balancing the ball on his head. he is like a kid with add that needs to fidget. anyone but the best player in the world is getting that shit smacked off his noggin and told to pay attenion.

just bear with me, this will eventually be about soccer in brazil.

The human body is 18 percent carbon, which means that if you subject it to high enough pressures at high enough temperatures and hold it there for a long enough time, it will form diamonds. You can try this yourself, in a laboratory. All it takes is, say, a pound of human ash, more than 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and 60,000 times the standard atmospheric pressure of Earth at sea level. Extract carbon, bake, compress. Check back in a few weeks. Not a DIYer? No problem. Just FedEx your burial urn to one of the many Internet-facing memorial-diamond companies that have sprung up in the last few years. For between $2,500 and $25,000, outfits like Chicago’s LifeGem and Switzerland’s Algordanza will take the cremated remains of your loved ones and return them, presto chango, in the form of wearable jewelry.

Oh no

In the future we’re going to realize wd-50 was the CBGB of this era, with way nicer bathrooms.

active shooter at Portland HS

ny times magazine: the burden of being messi

Displacement - Kenneth Goldsmith

At the same time Argentina hosted the 1978 World Cup, the nation's dictators were waging their "Dirty War" of repression, kidnappings and torture. As the tournament again draws near, ghastly memories are flooding back.

once i was: the hal ashby story