annoying

Better Gmail 2 doesn’t work with Firefox 3 in OS X. Any way around this?

UPDATE: problem fixed with version 0.5.2. Yay!

pistons!

Even Celtics fans should be hoping for a game 7, so that Garnett has a chance to reprise this performance.

I’ve got the Pistons winning in 7 in my bracket, but alas I don’t think that’s going to happen. Billups just isn’t holding up his end. Rasheed looks scared of getting another technical, and has been totally ineffective on the post. Tayshaun doesn’t really have an answer for Pierce (and keeps passing up wide-open looks), and no one has an answer for Garnett. Stuckey and Dyess have been fun to watch, but that’s just not going to be enough.

I think the Lakers are going to dismantle the Celtics, though I certainly hope that doesn’t happen.

piñon coffee

Has anyone else tried Piñon Coffee? It’s a flavored coffee, like chicory, but in this case the flavoring is… pine nuts! Really delicious, and inexpensive ($6.50/12 oz. at Trader Joe’s). I’m always looking for home-brew coffee that plays nicely with soy, and this is so far my favorite.

virtual tour of ILLC

I don’t know why, but this is one of the strangest things I’ve seen on the net.

“I think I’m the only guy around who quotes F. Scott Fitzgerald on the ‘Today’ show.”

Here’s a fascinating, hilarious profile of Chris Matthews from last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine.

midweek morrissey

counterintuitive!

William Saletan appears to care about animal welfare, but still thinks that South Korea ought to legalize the slaughter of dogs, writing:

To comply with Western sensibilities, the Koreans officially banned dog meat. But they don’t enforce the ban, presumably because they don’t share the abhorrence. And why should they? Why exactly is it gross to eat dogs but OK to slaughter pigs, which, by most measures, are smarter? So we’ve started with irrationality compounded by hypocrisy.

I know it’s really sweet to be annoying and contrarian, but if you really care about animals, you shouldn’t be making the “moral consistency demands that we allow even more animals to be murdered than we already do” argument. He continues…

And, for the rest of you, I’m sorry to say that your practice—and mine—of slaughtering and eating sentient beings will gradually be recognized, God willing, as barbaric and obsolete.

God willing! It would appear that Saletan has no say over what he puts into his mouth.

i can’t believe it

Squeeze is playing Detroit this August. Squeeze. I feel like it would be ridiculous to pass this up, but also ridiculous to pay to see a band who appear not to have done anything worthwhile since the early eighties. Oh what’s the use being coy? Of course I’m going to go.

I used to knock Ann Arbor music. I’ll keep doing that, of course (although they did somehow trick Morrissey into doing a show here). Detroit, however, seems to be doing ok for itself.

i feel…

…like there’s something very stupid about the post below this one.

graphs

This blog is funny.

congrats to simon

He’s going to be giving a talk entitled “Free and bound pro-verbs: A unified treatment of anaphora” at SALT 18! Here’s the program, and here’s a link to his abstract.

I hear he’s also having some luck with graduate admissions.

hey cool

Ann Arbor, from, I guess, the apartment complex on William. (The columned building on the left is where the Philosophy Department is located.)

happy new semester

Michigan’s starts today. Really!

My courseload’s a lot lighter this semester than last, so I plan to do a bit more writing here. I’m excited.

butts wynd

I wanted to comment on this when I was in St. Andrews, but I thought someone might think that was crass.

(Via Brian Weatherson)

traveling

After attending and presenting at a fantastic Arché Graduate Conference, I’ve finally made it to Paris. It’s pretty great (duh). I’ve been drinking a lot of wine and doing a lot of walking. There’s a bakery right by my hotel that makes the best croissant aux amandes I’ve ever tasted.

I leave for Oxford on Friday. Then back to the U.S. to catch up on all the work I’ve been avoiding since I got here.

a proverb

From the Book of Proverbs, 31:

[The virtuous wife] girds herself with strength, and strengthens her arms.

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Incidentally, I’m really busy with school and teaching, but hopefully I’ll get a routine and start finding time to blog soon.

fixing games

Via Yglesias, a Suns fan makes the case for the fixing of game 3 of the Suns/Spurs series.

Pretty damning. As we all recall, the series was a travesty of historic proportion. I hope the NBA gets its shit together soon.

baseball

Not like I give a damn, but the Yankees (8-2 in their last 10) are only 6 back in the AL Wild Card race. Leading are the Indians, who are tanking, followed by the Mariners, who are surging. I’m compelled to mention that they may even win the division, which would be hilarious; they’re 7 back on Boston, which is 3-7 in its last 10, 8-12 in its last 20. Who knows, they may even have a better shot at winning the AL East than the Wild Card.

j’avais un cœur de pierre

If anyone has the mp3 of Tony Parker’s latest joint, send it stat!

Literally one of the funniest things I’ve ever heard. The lyrics add a certain je ne sais quoi, even if you can’t read French.

“IPhone-Free Cellphone News”

This is pretty awesome.

Coolest part:

When you’re in a hot spot, T-Mobile has no idea where you are in the world. You could be in Des Moines, Denmark or Djibouti. So this is a big one for travelers: When you’re in a hot spot overseas, all calls to United States numbers are free.