Links for 2009-11-26

"[Northwestern State Coach] McConathy did things a little differently than most coaches -- he subbed his players five-in, five-out, ran an offense that was almost as old as the NCAA Tournament itself. He often allowed coaching friends and local children into the locker room at halftime, even for big games. He let national journalists give pregame pep talks. And for the middle part of this decade, his unconventional ways were paying off. The Demons had a long string of 20-win seasons, and made four consecutive Southland title games.

But now, the program was coming off one of the toughest seasons in its history, and there were even whispers around town that his job was on the line. But McConathy didn't change. He still subs in five at a time, he hasn't closed the locker room, and he'll let Coach Kyle reprise his role -- even against a Division I team. "

"A quick and simple way to roughly check the calibration of a spectrometer is to point it at the ceiling. Fluorescent lights put out a particular spectrum, and by comparing the colors the spectrometer senses to the colors you know the light emits, you can see if your spectrometer is accurate to a first approximation."

"I think Hitler may have a point here. "

"Now that computers are much more fun than they used to be, writing doesn't look like work anymore. It is, of course, but it doesn't look like it. When I'm at the computer typing, I might be doing something for my day job, or blogging, or reading, or shopping, or emailing, or tweeting. In any given hour, it's usually a mix. Chewing on an idea isn't a linear process. It's shaggier than that, which is necessary to get enough perspective on what's already written to make revising worthwhile. But if you swoop in from the outside and peek over my shoulder at a random moment, you might see a series of tweets or an article on heaven-knows-what, while I maintain with a straight face that I'm writing. And I am. It just doesn't look like it."

"That makes Palin the perfect post-postmodern politician, in a way: A totally self-contained text, a signifier with no referent. You don't really need to know anything to love her or to hate her, because she's not about anything except... Sarah Palin. Obligingly, she places no demands on either her supporters or her detractors, because what they decide to think of her is all they need to know to decide what to think of her. At the center of her media narrative is... the media's narrative about her, bouncing down an infinite corridor of mirrors. If Jorge Luis Borges had a talk show on a cable channel run by M.C. Escher, it would look like CNN right now. Welcome aboard the Goodship Palin, now sailing from the desert of the real."

"Evil means (bearing false witness) in service of evil ends (pride). For bonus points, this is all done in God's name -- so add in the evil of blasphemy too.

In a single sentence, [Chuck] Colson manages to break three out of 10 commandments. Not a record, but still impressive."