October 5, 2008 Link Roundup

This entry was posted by owl and bear staff on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 1:04 pm.

The Prescient Politics of The Big Lebowski – Consider the traits Walter exhibits over the course of the film: faith in American military might (the Gulf War, he says, “is gonna be a piece of cake”; in the original script, he calls it “a fucking cakewalk”); nostalgia for the Cold War (“Charlie,” he says, referring to the Viet Cong, was a “worthy fuckin’ adversary”); strong support for the state of Israel (to judge from his reverent paraphrase of Theodor Herzl: “If you will it, Dude, it is no dream”); and even, perhaps, past affiliation with the left (he refers knowingly to Lenin’s given name and admits to having “dabbled in pacifism”). Goodman, who has called the role his all-time favorite, seems also to have sensed Walter’s imperialist side. “Dude has a rather, let’s say, Eastern approach to bowling,” he said in an interview. “Walter is strictly Manifest Destiny.”

Interview: It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia‘s Rob McElhenney, Glenn Howerton, and Charlie Day – “Wait ’til this season. There’ll be some more music coming. There’s a musical on the way. Charlie’s opus. And the gang performs it”.

Interview: Simon Pegg – “I don’t think it’s fair on writers actually, even screenwriters, that they are so low down the food chain when it comes to movie making. That’s why me and Edgar do what we do. It’s because we want to be there the whole time, we don’t want to give our film to someone else. They’ll fuck it up”.

Interview: Old Crow Medicine Show – Fiddler and songwriter Ketch Secor talks about the band’s never-ending obligation to play “Wagon Wheel”—the band’s one hint of mainstream country crossover success, now edging into the realm of frat-party anthem.

Musicians Use Both Sides Of Their Brains More Frequently Than Average People – Psychologists have found that professionally trained musicians more effectively use a creative technique called divergent thinking, and also use both the left and the right sides of their frontal cortex more heavily than the average person.

Study Suggests Savagely Beating Children Effective Only After Age 12 – Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback, whereas negative feedback scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring. Twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use it to learn from their mistakes. The switch in learning strategy can be seen in the brain areas responsible for cognitive control.

Facebook Profiles Can Be Used To Detect Narcissism – Online social networking sites such as Facebook might be useful tools for detecting whether someone is a narcissist, according to new research.

Donny Miller Continues His Self-Promotional Crusade to End World Ignorance –

Lone Rangers Scour the New Wild West – Park service workers in the Mojave Desert never know what vestige of the Wild West they’ll find, right down to train robbers. High noon and the desert is hot, yet Tim Duncan is wearing body armor under his uniform. A handgun and a Taser hang from his belt. Next to him in the truck are a shotgun and an M-16 assault rifle with extra magazines.

Boy Mutilates, Feeds Zoo’s Animals to Crocodile – Somehow this Australian boy helps me to imagine what George W. Bush was like as a child: “The child then went on a killing spree, bashing three lizards to death with a rock, including the zoo’s beloved, 20-year-old monitor lizard, which he then fed to an 11-foot, 440-pound saltwater crocodile”.

Satellite Imagery Casts Doubt On Surge’s Success in Baghdad – I wonder why John McCain isn’t quoting this study in his stump speeches?