Do blogs enable graphomaniacs?

Graphomania is not a mania to write letters, personal diaries, or family chronicles (to write for oneself or one's close relations) but a mania to write books (to have a public of unknown readers). ... Graphomania (a mania for writing books) inevitably takes on epidemic proportions when a society devlops to the point of creating three basic conditions:

1. an elevated level of general well-being, which allows people to devote themselves to useless activities;
2. a high degree of social atomization and, as a consequence, a general isoalation of individuals;
3. the absense of dramatic social changes in the nation's internal life. (From this point of view, it seems to me symptomatic that in France, where practically nothing happens, the percentage of writers is twenty-one times higher than in Israel.

.. The mainspring that drives her to write is just that absence of vital content, that void. But by a backlash, the effort affects the cause. General isolation breeds graphomania, and generalized graphomania in turn intensifies and worsens isolation. The invention of printing formerly enabled people to understand one another. In the era of universal graphomania, the writing of books has an opposite meaning: everyone surrounded by his own words as by a wall of mirrors, which allows no voice to filter through from outside. ... One morning (and it will be soon), when everyone wakes up as a writer, the age of universal deafness and incomprehension will have arrived.

The Art "thing"

It's not the guy without arms and legs hanging on the wall. (Click the mouse to change colors.)

If the above painting of "Lucy in the Field with Flowers" inspires you, see more at the MOBA.

Peeps

Recent stem cell breakthroughs could open up all sorts of advances into fluffethelium research

More MD-politicos/terrorists

*Alexis Carrell (vascular, transplant surgeon, eugenicist, Vichy sympathizer)
*Benjamin Rush (physician, American patriot)
*Jmaes Parkinson (physician, geologist, political activist)
*Ramon Betances (surgeon, PR nationalist)
*Oscar Biscet (physician, PR human rights advocate)
*Ayman al-Zawahiri (surgeon, al Queda terrorist)
*Mohammed Asha (neurosurgeon, terrorist)

Bluesday, Twoferday, Humpday, Otherday, TGIF

If you get bored during the grind

Solipsism, and other Blog phenomena

Is there anyone else out there? If there were no Universe, would 7 still be a prime number?

Even better than Shat

A nice video to end the weekend on...

Best thing since detente?

The B52-like dancing babushkas have me all hot and bothered, (just like Nicole in To Die For). Their epic versions of Knockin' on Heaven's Door and Tom Jones' Delilah are also to be recommended. And the balalaikas are perfect for LedZep. Tchaikovsky would be proud.

Jethro Tull, etc.

Agronomist and inventor of the seed drill

-To be sad...
-1979 interview
-Wond'ring aloud
-I've been to Dun Ringill
-My God (Isle of Wight)
-Skating Away...
-Rover
-Whole Lotta Brick
-The Choo Choo Song
-The Minstrel

A boy and his drums

Maybe the best drummer alive today?

Shift happens

Yeah, but can somebody figure out how to do better than that troublesome plastic clamshell packaging?

Phillip hath soiled the air?

Some nice Shat after a hard week

A little Shat "me time", perhaps. Or some Shat Sociology (Shatology, but not to be confused with the anal bleaching link below)?

Give the guy credit for a sense of humor.

Spock sings

A catchy melody.

MD-politicos

* Bashar Al-Assad - President of Syria
* Ibrahim Al-Jaafari - Prime minister of Iraq
* Iyad Allawi - interim Prime Minister of Iraq
* Salvador Allende (1908–1973) - Chilean president
* Emilio Alvarez Montalván - Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
* Arnulfo Arias - Panaman President
* Michelle Bachelet - Current Chilean President
* Hastings Kamuzu Banda (1898–1997) - Prime Minister, President and later dictator of Malawi
* Louis Blanqui - French revolutionary socialist
* Frederick William Borden - Canadian MP and minister of the Militia
* Bob Brown - parliamentry leader of the Australian Greens
* Gro Harlem Brundtland (born 1939) - first Norwegian female prime minister and Director-General of the World Health Organization
* Georges Clemenceau (1841–1929) - French statesman
* Margaret Chan - Director General of the WHO and former Director of Health of Hong Kong
* York Chow - Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food of Hong Kong
* Tom Coburn (born 1948) - U.S. Senator
* Howard Dean (born 1948) - American politician
* François Duvalier (1907–1971) - also known as Papa Doc - President and later dictator of Haiti
* Antônio Palocci Filho - Brazilian politician, Finance Minister
* Christian Friedrich, Baron von Stockmar - Anglo-Belgian statesman
* Bill Frist (born 1952) - United States Senate Majority Leader
* Hedy Fry (born 1941) - Canadian politician, member of parliament
* Che Guevara Latin American revolutionary leader
* George Habash - founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
* John Pope Hennessy - former Governor of Hong Kong
* Grant Hill (politician) - former Canadian MP
* Wilbert Keon - Canadian senator
* Mohammad Reza Khatami - Iranian politician
* Juscelino Kubitscheck - Brazilian president
* Jean-Paul Marat - French revolution leader
* Keith Martin - Portuguese Canadian MP
* William McGuigan - mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia
* Mahathir bin Mohamad - Malaysian prime minister
* Brendon Nelson - Australian politician
* Agostinho Neto (1922–1979) - MPLA leader and president of Angola
* David Owen - British politician
* Ron Paul (born 1935) - American politician
* Andrew Refshauge - Australian politician
* Navin Ramgoolam - Prime minister of Mauritius
* Maxime Ferrari - Minister for Development Seychelles
* José Rizal (1861–1896) - Filipino revolutionary and national hero
* Théodore Robitaille - Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, Quebec MNA and Senator
* Bidhan Chandra Roy - Indian politician
* Hélio de Oliveira Santos - Brazilian politician, mayor of Campinas
* Tabaré Vázquez - Current Uruguayan President
* Bette Stephenson - Ontario MPP and former Minister of Labour, Minister of Education and Minister of Colleges and Universities
* Sun Yat-Sen (1866–1925) - Founder of republican China
* Donald Matheson Sutherland - MP and former minister of National Defence
* Sir Charles Tupper (1821–1915) - Prime Minister of Canada (1896) and Premier of Nova Scotia (1864–1867); High Commissioner in Great Britain (1884-1887)
* Ali Akbar Velayati (born 1945) - Iranian Foreign Minister from 1981 to 1997.
* William Walker (soldier) (1824–1860) - ruler of Nicaragua
* Dave Weldon - US congressman and autism activist
* Ray Lyman Wilbur (1875–1949) - United States Secretary of the Interior, president of Stanford University
* Thomas Wynne (1627–1691) - Physician to William Penn, speaker of the first two Provincial Assemblies in Philadelphia (1687 & 1688)
* Yeoh Eng-kiong - former Secretary for Health and Welfare of Hong Kong

The joys of Plastic Surgery

People train for a decade to do this? Talk about a niche industry. No wonder the Islamists think we're corrupt.

Beware, not for the faint of heart: Village Voice, YouTube.