Splice Today

Let's play the blame game

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:03:34 -0500

Merely observing someone publicly blame an individual in an organization for a problem -- even when the target is innocent -- greatly increases the odds that the practice of blaming others will spread with the tenacity of the H1N1 flu, according to new research from the USC Marshall School of Business and Stanford University.

Just bake a fucking pie crust already

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 15:00:31 -0500

Today's Dining section brings a roundup of holiday dinner recipes for you wussbags who are too lazy or scared to make desserts with crusts. "Is it Thanksgiving if there is no traditional pie with a traditional filling and a crust that the cook obviously fussed and worried over?" asks Florence Fabrikant. The answer is obviously: NO, YOU HORRIBLE MONSTER, IT IS NOT. Are you one of those wimps who is afraid of a pie crust? Here, I will tell you everything you need to know right now, you whiny little girl. Yes, that is a picture of an apple pie that I whipped up the other week in about 8 seconds. Loser! Here are the tools you will need: NONE.

SciFi the world over

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:58:52 -0500

Guy Hasson is an SF author, a playwright, and a filmmaker. His books, Hatchling and Life: the Game, have been published in paperback by Bitan Publishers. His short stories have appeared in five languages. Two of his stories won the Israeli Geffen Award for Best Short Story in 2003 and 2005. In the theater, six of his shows have been produced. His latest film is Heart of Stone, a feature-length, low-budget, SF film in Hebrew, which he wrote, shot, and directed.

Best Baltimore albums of the Decade

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:42:15 -0500

…and I feel f–

Oh, god, here come the lists.!!!

The Onion’s A.V. Club has anointed 50 albums the best of the decade. Time to start thinking about the best Baltimore albums of the 2000s? Tell us your picks in the comments.

Drive the route from Easy Rider

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:27:55 -0500

I’ve had quite a few questions via email about the route that Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda rode in the 1969 Movie Easy Rider, and for the last couple of years I’ve ridden and researched it. The movie cemented me as a rider for life at a young age. Anyway, here it is. Since it’s a movie, it hops around a bit, but here’s the route:

We like lists because we don't want to die

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:32:34 -0500

Italian novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco, who is curating a new exhibition at the Louvre in Paris, talks to SPIEGEL about the place lists hold in the history of culture, the ways we try to avoid thinking about death and why Google is dangerous for young people.

Britain and America: The End of the Affair

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:57:11 -0500

It says much about Britain’s rapidly disappearing ‘special relationship’ with America that when I happened to mention to some of our senior military officers that I was visiting Washington, they begged me to find out what the Obama administration was thinking about Afghanistan. It is not just that the transatlantic lines of communication, so strong just a few years ago, have fallen into disuse. There is now a feeling that, even if we reached the Oval Office, there would be no one willing to take Britain’s call.

As shitty Best Of lists go, this takes the prize for Absolute Shittiest Best Of List Ever Compiled

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:41:03 -0500

Here it is... what is the Best Song Of All Time, as voted for by Xfm listeners?

The Political Art of Domination: a leather master's historic run for office

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:08:28 -0500

Most people who signed Joe Laiacona's petition to run for state representative of the 40th District probably had no idea they were supporting a historic campaign. That's because Laiacona didn't tell them. One evening in August I followed the 62-year-old as he hoofed it down Sacramento between Irving Park and Addison. Wearing a short-sleeve plaid shirt tucked into jeans, he said almost exactly the same thing to anyone who'd open the door: "Hi, I'm Joe Laiacona. I'm running for state rep of the 40th District, and I'm wondering if you'd like to sign my petition. It doesn't mean you'll vote for me. It just means you'll have a choice."

Humor alive and well in China

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:52:03 -0500

A MAN who had half his body amputated after being run over by a truck has not only recovered but opened his own bargain supermarket - called the Half Man-Half Price Store.