You'd Think I Was Obsessed With This

But I'm really not. I mean, I haven't even been running that much lately; I've been sick, it's been raining, and I've been listening to a lot of music (Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Vampire Weekend, Them Crooked Vultures, and just last night I rediscovered my love for all things Elephant 6). But anyway, here's an NPR article about barefoot running, and here's what shoe company Brooks has to say.

Oregon voted to raise taxes to pay for stuff. What a novel idea.

Kasparov wrote a fascinating piece on man v. machine chess for NY Review of Books. It might be gated, or maybe it's just me. [thanks JS]

Oh, and I'm totally, totally disappointed politically lately, as Obama is apparently the Clinton-like centrist he promised he would be instead of, you know, remotely progressive, and interpreting one Senate loss by a poor candidate as anger over far-left policies instead of what I think it is: anger about Dems being a bunch of gutless wimps (who haven't taken on big banks or other lobbyists). If you've lived under a cave recently (but only a US cave, since that's where Hulu works), perhaps you can cheer yourself up by watching Conan's farewell speech. Classy.

Or just watch this 70-minute scathing critique of Phantom Menace.

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