I absolutely love this video.

This is important. Call your representatives today. I did.

The next Steve Jobs will be a chick

Louis C.K.

The next Steve Jobs will totally be a chick, because girls are No. 2—and No. 2 always wins in America. Apple was a No. 2 company for years, and Apple embodies a lot of what have been defined as feminine traits: an emphasis on intuitive design, intellect, a strong sense of creativity, and that striving to always make the greatest version of something. Traditionally, men are more like Microsoft, where they’ll just make a fake version of what that chick made, then beat the shit out of her and try to intimidate everybody into using their product.

First seen on Daring Fireball.

daringfireball.net

71 loans on Kiva.

71 loans on Kiva.

Looks like Scientology is trying to catch up with Christian music videos from 1996. It’s good to see these guys give it the ol’ college try.

Awesome.

Awesome.

Liem Neeson wants to do comedy.

Made by Hand is one of the best web series that I’ve had the pleasure to watch.

thisismadebyhand.com

Starlings

By Michael Burns

I won’t say that I didn’t hear peeping
when I started up the ladder to take a look.
I could just reach far enough to hook
a swatch of straw as big as a pillow
and pull it loose, and down came

three half-grown baby birds
with eyes wide open, and heads too big
for their necks. I stared at their ancient,
blameless stupidity, and then I whacked
them over and over with the edge of the rake.

I had a pile of limbs that needed burning,
and with the straw I made a funeral fire.
My guess is you think you can see me there
watching them burn, a sad but satisfied
look on my face. Coldness. Maybe you can.

What if I told you now that none of this
was true, and that what I really did
was put them back, like a movie rewound?
My guess is already I’ve gone too far.
You smell the singe of feathers in the air.

Michael Burns wasn’t a poet whose name you could drop in a circle of well-read poets and expect instant reverence. Outside of the Ozarks, it’s hard for anyone to know who he was as a writer, hard to understand what a great teacher he was, how much you could both hate and love him. And I loved him. He had this gift. He could take your poem, and with a few strokes of his editorial pen and three minutes, tear out all the shit you didn’t want to tear out. I can’t count how many times he would take a poem of mine and show me how to make it stronger by eliminating the cruft. How many times he told me that “this is a so-what poem.” In another words, who gives a shit. It hurt every time. But he was right. He was always right. And now, after finding out that he died from a heart attack last Friday, I find myself missing his mustache, his pen, his no-bullshit demeanor. I found a book of his that he signed for me. And he wrote: For Zach, whose own poems I enjoy, and I look forward to seeing more of them. Michael1-30-01Springfield I wish I could show them to Burns. I’ve never wished for something so much in my life.

Michael Burns wasn’t a poet whose name you could drop in a circle of well-read poets and expect instant reverence. Outside of the Ozarks, it’s hard for anyone to know who he was as a writer, hard to understand what a great teacher he was, how much you could both hate and love him.

And I loved him.

He had this gift. He could take your poem, and with a few strokes of his editorial pen and three minutes, tear out all the shit you didn’t want to tear out. I can’t count how many times he would take a poem of mine and show me how to make it stronger by eliminating the cruft.

How many times he told me that “this is a so-what poem.” In another words, who gives a shit.

It hurt every time. But he was right. He was always right. And now, after finding out that he died from a heart attack last Friday, I find myself missing his mustache, his pen, his no-bullshit demeanor.

I found a book of his that he signed for me. And he wrote:

For Zach,

whose own poems I enjoy, and I look forward to seeing more of them.

Michael
1-30-01
Springfield

I wish I could show them to Burns. I’ve never wished for something so much in my life.