Mine

Gems and trinkets that I find, without and within.

[johnlj]

Don't put on too much of the 'lord of creation' air. It will only make you look ridiculous.

Blanche Ebbutt, Don’ts For Husbands

[johnlj]

Battling 'any-town'

Favourite Beers - Newsletter (January) 2015‏:

But the message really has to go out again – and this doesn’t just apply to us; this applies to all sorts of small, specialist retailers in the town – if you want to have this sort of shop in the town, you need to use them, or lose them. Buying from big supermarkets is a lot cheaper, yes, but does little to help the local economy; and if you just occasionally decide to use the local independents, you will be helping... the town to retain its unique character, and stopping it from becoming a faceless ‘any-town’.

Hear, hear, Leigh! Promise I'll frequent @favouritebeers more often in 2015.

[johnlj]

This underscores the key point: there are all sorts of ways ideas and viewpoints are suppressed in the west. When those demanding publication of these anti-Islam cartoons start demanding the affirmative publication of _those_ ideas as well, I’ll believe the sincerity of their very selective application of free speech principles...

Glenn Greenwald, In Solidarity With a Free Press: Some More Blasphemous Cartoons

[johnlj]

The restless mind will make you believe that it is you, that _you_ are it. _You_ are not.

Jessica Hynes, Foreword of Glyn Dillon's The Nao of Brown

[hebikaratakae]

Metal bending 

[faitherinhicks]

we just watched this and oh my god

oh my god

Su & her hot kids forever.

[johnlj]

Wow. Well, my must-see list just got a bit longer.

[johnlj]

If you criticise the War on Drugs, the stock media response is to accuse you of wanting to see heroin 'on the supermarket shelves.' This is a ridiculously-reductive response to the wide range of options available for dealing with drugs once prohibition stops being the only policy that can be considered. For a start, there is a big difference between legalisation and decriminalising possession... If we wanted to go further and make certain drugs legally available, there are lots of alternatives to unregulated sales: - Making drugs available on prescription, so your doctor can monitor your use and help you through withdrawal if you wish to stop. - Selling them from pharmacies, so the pharmacist can give advice on dose and possible side-effects. This idea could be developed to create a new profession specialising in recreational drugs, who are able to give counselling and intervene if they think someone is in danger of addiction. - Licensed sales, so that only certain shops can sell them, under certain conditions and at certain times [like the Canadian liquor commissions]. - Licensed premises for consumption on site, like pubs or the Dutch cannabis cafés. The licences could be exclusive, so that a place which is allowed to sell ecstasy can't sell alcohol, for example, and licensees could be partially responsible for the behaviour of their customers. The Dutch coffee shops that sell cannabis are not only banned from selling alcohol, but also don't allow tobacco smoking on the premises. - Membership-based licensed premises, where users have to be registered, and consumption can be monitored and controlled. Although we don't currently use this for drugs, it's similar to the model we've adopted for casinos, and in Spain a similar scheme for cannabis use seems to be working well. The point is, there are a lot of alternatives...

David Nutt, Drugs Without The Hot Air

[herr-docktor-deactivated2018030]

I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.

Voltaire (via ryan-masters)

Just happened to watch this Mental Floss episode yesterday; apparently it was actually Evelyn Beatrice Hall who wrote that.

[johnlj]

Nothing I had ever experienced had brought home to me as forcibly as Burning Man that fundamental truth which is so easy to know, so hard to live by: giving is getting.

Geoff Dyer, Yoga for people who can't be bothered to do it

[johnlj]

I know exactly what you mean about growing older and knowing who you are. How do you explain that to someone so young? By twenty-five you know you're never going to be a rock-star, by thirty you know you're never going to be a dentist, and by forty there are maybe three things left that you can still be--and even then, that's only if you run as fast as you possibly can to try to catch the train.

Douglas Coupland, The Gum Thief

A great moment in an average book, and the quote of the day for me. I applied for my first job in social care yesterday. While it's been some time since I thought of myself as a computer scientist, up until a few months ago, I'd assumed I'd retire from the field.

Still, I see the quote as hopeful.

[johnlj]

I should probably go back to bed.

[johnlj]

The acquisition of Canada this year, as far as the neighborhood of Quebec, will be a mere matter of marching, and will give us experience for the attack of Halifax the next, and the final expulsion of England from the American continent.

Thomas Jefferson

Between this, and being reminded that the French were happy to lose most of New France in exchange for the lucrative Guadeloupe -- to say nothing of Voltaire's glib "quelques arpents de neige" summation -- it's been a humbling stroll through Canadian history this afternoon.

And don't even get me started on the tennis. ;-)

[deactivated-blog]

Jean Claude Van Damme in "Licks of Justice" (NSFW)

My Jean Claude Van Damme video is picking up traction.  It was featured on Digg, and now College Humor.  Check it out! http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6956815/jean-claude-van-damme-licks-of-justice-tootsie-pop-parody

[johnlj]

SO - MUCH - LOVE - for this!

[niknak79]

[missjackiespurrsonal]

I don’t usually comment on posts but FUN RANDOM DISNEY FACT : before Scar got his Scar (which was given to him by a wildebeest after an incident involving Mufasa) his name was Taka. He requested to be called Scar after this incident because he is a very over-dramatic lion as we already know! The source for this fact is from the Lion King novel series. 

[kissthesecurves-deactivated2015]

Damn you learn something everyday.

[banans13]

EXCUSE ME THERE IS A LION KING NOVEL SERIES EXCUSE ME EXCUSE MEEEE

[memewhore]

Another fun fact: I just looked it up and in Swahili, taka means garbage.

[nooby-banana]

So their parents named them literally “King” and “Garbage” omfg that’s so awful xD

[diggetydungeons]

that’s so MEAN NO WONDER GARBAGE WANTED TO KILL HIS FAMILY

[johnlj]

Sympathy for the scar. Made my day already.

[johnlj]

It may be a common misspelling, but it still strikes me as somewhat ironic, on a product with implied cultural sensitivities.

[stephen-fry-me-deactivated20160]

The longer I live, the more I love Forster. Just flicking through his Clark Lectures and was reminded of this honest, but perhaps wounding to the loyal British soul, observation:

“An unpleasant and unpatriotic truth has here to be faced. No English novelist is as great as Tolstoy — that is to...

[johnlj]

Wonderful. I picked up a copy at the local Oxfam shop a few weeks ago... Might have a thumb-through myself now...

[supervillain]

[johnlj]

lol -- Thought of this while watching Psycho (1960) again recently: her employer doing a double-take at the crossing as she's blowin' town.

[einzelperson]

Omer Fast - Continuity (2012)

Speaking of ridiculously cool films, here’s a short clip of one I saw at an installation in downtown Toronto a while ago. I’m not sure where to find the whole film, and considering that it is shown as a continuous loop, this video does not do it any justice. Nonetheless, check the info out, this film has been on my mind for 8 months:

http://www.tba21.org/augarten_activities/163

[johnlj]

I'll second this recommendation. I saw it at the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow this week; heavy stuff!