The Best of All Games

John Rawls on baseball — via kottke

The 100 Worst Album Covers EVER

Much to admire…

Pope won't break bread with Bush

“The White House has scheduled a dinner next week in honor of Pope Benedict XVI’s first visit to the United States, but one guest will be conspicuously absent from the proceedings: the pope himself.

There are no competing events listed on the pope’s schedule, and the White House was unable to explain Benedict’s absence from the dinner.”

Strange.

Statistics Help for Journalists

“So what should you ask a number? Well, mathematicians have developed an entire field – statistics – dedicated to getting answers out of numbers. Now, you don’t have to have a degree in statistics in order to conduct an effective “interview” with your data. But you do need to know a few basics.

Here, described in plain English, are some basic concepts in statistics that every writer should know…”

(Will help bloggers, too — believe me.)

Game theory explains dinner-party dates

So “Bidding Behavior in Asymmetric Auctions” explains quite a bit, it seems.

The Doodlebook

I suppose you already saw this. No? Well, then…

LUNCH

“A reminder to stop, chill, breathe in fresh air and most importantly – EAT. Architects by profession, we’re also ladies who lunch.”

Brilliant. Except that the gorgeous photos of their meals are not fair to someone sitting at a desk a few thousand miles and an ocean away.

Foreign Policy: The First Law of Petropolitics

“Iran’s president denies the Holocaust, Hugo Chávez tells Western leaders to go to hell, and Vladimir Putin is cracking the whip. Why? They know that the price of oil and the pace of freedom always move in opposite directions. It’s the First Law of Petropolitics, and it may be the axiom to explain our age.”

How Pioneering AIDS Doctor Ramon Torres Became Another Casualty of the Epidemic

“Dr. Ramon Torres was a hero on the front lines against the epidemic for over a decade. It was when the war began to be won that he got lost.”

A truly heartbreaking story; also, a piece of writing that easily lives up to those lofty standards that we once associated with American magazine writing.

The New York Books Canon

“The New York Canon: Books From Norman Mailer to Rem Koolhaas, 26 works of lapidary New Yorkitude.”

You will, no doubt, find a lot to have a different opinion about. But it is, nonetheless, a rather good start.

Cabinet Magazine

Almost forgot to mention: this is one interesting mag.

Google App Engine

One wonders how the balance between Ruby and Python will be affected by this? Google is, I understand, a relatively large and well-funded company.

Satellite Dylan

“That voice, softened by the erosion of age but still the sensate rasp that Joyce Carol Oates once compared to sandpaper singing.”

Textism

Dean Allen has returned. So has Fafblog!. Not all is lost.