var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-28599025-1’]); _gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’]); (function() { var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true; ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();Tumblr (3.0; @explainedbacon)http://explainedbacon.com/<iframe width="400" height="299" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/msbSys9Z27I?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>http://explainedbacon.com/post/18197449508http://explainedbacon.com/post/18197449508Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:35:12 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzq0rgxkUa1qz84n9o1_500.png"/><br/><br/>http://explainedbacon.com/post/18074125679http://explainedbacon.com/post/18074125679Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:27:11 -0500<i> <p>If a good fact-checker, like Jim Fingal, went through my essay, he’d flag 32 falsehoods,* all inaccuracies of the sort that D’Agata argues for keeping in “What Happens There.” In writing this piece, I never met John D’Agata or Jim Fingal, but massaged quotes from other sources, giving the impression I did. The Things They Carried was actually published in 1990. In 1992 I was 17, not 16, not the age of Levi Presley, and though my girlfriend had dumped me I wasn’t considering suicide at all. That thing with the ice in the trees definitely happened several times while I was in high school, though I can’t remember whether it happened in February of ‘92. I remember what Tim O’Brien wore but I don’t remember what I said to him.</p> <p>Whether you will be delighted or disgusted by The Lifespan of a Fact depends on what kind of reader you are. Are my misquotes, misrepresentations, and lies OK because, though I’ve never met John D’Agata or Jim Fingal, after reading this enraging, fascinating, singular book, I feel as though I know them? Is this review a clever trick or a cheat, a critique or an appreciation? Is it a work of art or am I a lying sack of shit? Are those the only options?</p> <p>The book’s unexpected, touching conclusion coincides with the end of D’Agata’s essay and the end of Levi’s life. The section is fiercely powerful, despite the fact that Fingal is picking it apart in real time in the margins. Did Levi Presley deserve better than this? Maybe so. Or maybe these maddening questions are the tribute due a boy who takes his own life without telling anyone why. Proceeds from the book go, according to an afterword, to a scholarship in Levi’s name at the Tae Kwon Do dojo run by Levi’s best friend. I hope that’s true.</p> <p></p> </i> On John D’Agata and Jim Fingal’s <i>The Lifespan of a Fact</i>, in which D’Agata simultaneously stuns with lyrical language and enrages with masculine, “dickhead”-heavy, stubborn rhetoric. <p></p> [via Dan Kois’ <i><a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2012/02/the_lifespan_of_a_fact_essayist_john_d_agata_defends_his_right_to_fudge_the_truth_.single.html">Facts Are Stupid</a></i>]http://explainedbacon.com/post/17769116315http://explainedbacon.com/post/17769116315Fri, 17 Feb 2012 11:14:39 -0500john d'agatajim fingalfact-checkingnonfiction<iframe width="400" height="299" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PgIz1Add98s?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/><p>42 Saint Bernards</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/17664131972http://explainedbacon.com/post/17664131972Wed, 15 Feb 2012 13:19:57 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzfzhbP7KX1qgd3wro1_500.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>(Click for larger image.) </p> <p>[via The New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/01/08/opinion/sunday/the-strip.html?ref=sunday#1">Sunday Review</a>, 2.12.12]</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/17659875151http://explainedbacon.com/post/17659875151Wed, 15 Feb 2012 11:07:59 -0500<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/9880377?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="400" height="300" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/><p>“You have to do yourself a favor: When you are out in the countryside and you see a chicken, try to look a chicken in the eye with great intensity, and the intensity of stupidity that is looking back at you is just amazing.”</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/17441130959http://explainedbacon.com/post/17441130959Sat, 11 Feb 2012 14:51:45 -0500werner herzogchickens<div style="float: left; width: 50%;"> <ul><li>fled on foot = ran away</li> <li>high rate of speed = speeding</li> <li>physical altercation = fight</li> <li>verbal altercation = argument</li> <li>reduce expenditures = cut costs</li> <li>lower extremities = legs</li> <li>officers observed = police saw</li> <li>at this point in time = now</li> <li>express concerns = complain</li> <li>obtain information = ask or interview</li> <li>deceased = dead</li> <li>sexual relations = sex</li> <li>emergency personnel = police, firefighters</li> <li>utilize = use</li> <li>complainant = victim</li> <li>fatally injured = killed</li> <li>motorist = driver</li> <li>juvenile male/female = teen boy or girl</li> <li>respond to the scene = arrive</li> <li>provide leadership = lead</li> <li>obstruct = block, get in the way</li> <li>came to the conclusion that = decided, figured out</li> </ul></div> <div style="float: right; width: 50%;"> <ul><li>terminate employment = fire</li> <li>reduction in service = layoff</li> <li>blunt force trauma = injury</li> <li>discharged the weapon = shot</li> <li>transport the victim = take him/her</li> <li>roadway = road</li> <li>fail to negotiate a curve = missed a curve</li> <li>determine a course of action = consider options</li> <li>vehicle = car or truck</li> <li>citizen = person</li> <li>individual = man or woman</li> <li>commence = begin</li> <li>incendiary device = bomb</li> <li>precipitation = rain, snow</li> <li>purchase = buy</li> <li>intoxicated = drunk</li> <li>controlled substances = drugs</li> <li>appendages = arms, legs</li> <li>contusion = bruise</li> <li>head trauma = head injury</li> <li>laceration = cut</li> <li>arrived at a decision = decided</li> <li>reside = live</li> </ul></div> <p></p> <p> [taken from <a href="http://fasthorseinc.com/blog/2012/02/08/words-journalists-use-that-people-never-say/">Bob Ingrassia’s <i>Words Journalists Use That People Never Say</i></a>]</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/17269257412http://explainedbacon.com/post/17269257412Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:26:00 -0500journalismwords<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://assets.tumblr.com/swf/audio_player_black.swf?audio_file=http://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/16761826452/tumblr_lymb5wGRu51qgd3wr&color=FFFFFF" height="27" width="207" quality="best" wmode="opaque"></embed><br/><br/><p>“Give me a drink with all your sweetest Brazilian fruits mixed together!”</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/16761826452http://explainedbacon.com/post/16761826452Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:32:00 -0500homer simpsonbrazil<p><div class="renderhtml5 section"> <div class="clearing"></div> <div style="border: 1px solid black; padding: 6px;"> <div style="background-color:#900;color: #fff; text-align:center; padding: 2px; font-size:1.2em;"> How long would it take Mitt Romney to earn what you make in a year? </div> <br/> Enter an income:<br/><input id="salary" size="20"><input type="button" id="calc" value="Calculate"><div id="output"></div> </div> <script> //<![CDATA[ function getDate(time_in_seconds) { var years = Math.floor(time_in_seconds / (365 * 24 * 60 * 60)); time_in_seconds = time_in_seconds - (years * 365 * 24 * 60 * 60); var months = Math.floor(time_in_seconds / ((365/12) * 24 * 60 * 60)); time_in_seconds = time_in_seconds - (months * (365/12) * 24 * 60 * 60); //var months = 0; var days = Math.floor(time_in_seconds / (24 * 60 * 60)); time_in_seconds = time_in_seconds - (days * 24 * 60 * 60); var hours = Math.floor(time_in_seconds / (60 * 60)); time_in_seconds = time_in_seconds - (hours * 60 * 60); var minutes = Math.floor(time_in_seconds / 60) time_in_seconds = time_in_seconds - (minutes * 60); var seconds = Math.floor(time_in_seconds); return ((years) ? years + " years " : "") + ((months) ? months + " months ": "") + ((days) ? days + " days " : "") + ((hours) ? hours + " hours " : "") + ((minutes) ? minutes + " minutes and " : "") + seconds + " seconds"; } var romney_income = 21661344; $(document).ready(function() { $("#calc").click(function() { var your_income = $("#salary").attr("value"); your_income = your_income.replace(/[^0-9\.]/g, ''); if (!your_income) { $("#output").html("<span style='text-color:red'>Couldn't understand your income."); } else { var seconds_in_a_year = 365 * 60 * 60 * 24; var romney_income_per_second = romney_income / seconds_in_a_year; var your_income_per_second = your_income / seconds_in_a_year; var your_income_in_seconds = your_income * seconds_in_a_year / romney_income; $("#output").html("<br />In 2010, Mitt Romney made $" + your_income + " in " + getDate(your_income_in_seconds) + "."); } }); }); //]]> </script></div> [via <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/01/romney_income_calculator_how_much_does_mitt_make_how_long_would_it_take_him_to_earn_your_salary_.html?tid=sm_tw_button_toolbar">Slate</a>]</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/16466037481http://explainedbacon.com/post/16466037481Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:30:07 -0500<p>Most people think body parts fall off. It’s more of a refined subtraction, an easing into as the body unto no living part is exposed to daylight. Parts rot; there is no whimpering away, no bending of the arm for the last time as it snaps a tree-branch snap. If, for example, of the afflicted stumbles upon a medium-sized cockroach stuck to a glue trap, he will inhale sharply as any person would. The difference hides in disgust: Watch his tree-bark face, listen to his fractured voice crackling like sap tapped in fall.</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/16380629295http://explainedbacon.com/post/16380629295Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:17:32 -0500<p>Enter withdrawal: Inside the corrugated cardboard hummed its warning that the collapse of logic had in fact already passed and the signals were just late in arriving. If it was the hotel’s velvet or a bottle thrust empty that set us off I would never know. The surge protector pulsed: Here the parallel lines meet.</p> <p>In their last failed grasp for reception the chemicals lifted a ship skyward only to watch it fall, its sailed tipped like teeth clenching against treeline. And before the ship was the airplane, with wings splayed perpendicular and defeated. I had lost control of steering, that was what it was, sure. Because no matter how backwards the tiller feels it is right because it mirrors the plane’s thrusted vectors, and no matter how much levity is breathed into the sky, it’s no more than walking: the same as standing, which might as well be heaving in a bed.</p> <p>In that bed while crawling atop, the woman watched me through her window. She watched me spinning the gold on axles, trying to unravel what alchemy could not. She watched me pacing. She watched me confront the empty desk where cardboard boxes multiplied. Watched me wonder if the lamp work, watched me consider the goddamn eyeteeth and how they meet in jags, watched me cower from electricity with a fear jolted higher with each shred of the cardboard sinking into itself. But If I could watch the corrugation’s wale grow thinner it meant I could still watch. That was as far as I got. Thermometers loomed and called me liar.</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/16380289874http://explainedbacon.com/post/16380289874Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:12:28 -0500<iframe width="400" height="299" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/msbSys9Z27I?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>http://explainedbacon.com/post/16360263390http://explainedbacon.com/post/16360263390Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:41:58 -0500<iframe width="400" height="299" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pWyHiV3l3MA?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/>http://explainedbacon.com/post/15790536129http://explainedbacon.com/post/15790536129Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:02:49 -0500<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://assets.tumblr.com/swf/audio_player_black.swf?audio_file=http://www.tumblr.com/audio_file/14079431961/tumblr_lw2351q8Kc1qgd3wr&color=FFFFFF" height="27" width="207" quality="best" wmode="opaque"></embed><br/><br/><p><img src="http://s3-ak.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/web03/2011/12/9/17/enhanced-buzz-wide-5657-1323470693-2.jpg" height="75%" width="75%"/></p> <p>[via <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/aziz-ansaris-emoticon-version-of-jay-zkanye-west">Buzzfeed</a>]</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/14079431961http://explainedbacon.com/post/14079431961Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:02:35 -0500kanye westjay-zwatch the throne<img src="http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxytoofy131qgd3wro1_400.jpg"/><br/><br/><p>Eerie portraiture. (Or was GW was too much of a miserable, lying disgrace to even represent photographically?)</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/16028318087http://explainedbacon.com/post/16028318087Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:10:00 -0500<img src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxnb1vaVEX1qgd3wro1_500.png"/><br/><br/><p>“Microsoft Taking Risk With Complex New Net Browser,” “Knicks Hold Off Chicago, 97-93”</p> <p>[via <a href="http://www.archive.org/web/web.php">The Wayback Machine</a>]</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/15676729946http://explainedbacon.com/post/15676729946Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:53:00 -0500<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/34789562?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&loop=1" width="400" height="225" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><br/><p>[thank you, @escotte, for the marvelous idea]</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/15570223664http://explainedbacon.com/post/15570223664Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:43:00 -0500<img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwgqqciup71qgd3wro1_500.jpg"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwgqqciup71qgd3wro2_500.jpg"/><br/> <br/><img src="http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwgqqciup71qgd3wro3_400.png"/><br/> <br/><p>treat yo self</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/14463816684http://explainedbacon.com/post/14463816684Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:15:00 -0500treat yo selfparks and recreation<iframe width="400" height="225" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8775ZmNGFY8?wmode=transparent&autohide=1&egm=0&hd=1&iv_load_policy=3&modestbranding=1&rel=0&showinfo=0&showsearch=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br/><br/><p>(better late than never, re: posting)</p>http://explainedbacon.com/post/13602820672http://explainedbacon.com/post/13602820672Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:35:57 -0500<span id="video_player_11909119341">[<a href="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash" target="_blank">Flash 10</a> is required to watch video.]</span><script type="text/javascript">renderVideo("video_player_11909119341",'http://explainedbacon.com/video_file/11909119341/tumblr_ltmo37IIIB1qgd3wr',400,225,'poster=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_ltmo37IIIB1qgd3wr_r1_frame1.jpg,http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_ltmo37IIIB1qgd3wr_r1_frame2.jpg,http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_ltmo37IIIB1qgd3wr_r1_frame3.jpg,http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_ltmo37IIIB1qgd3wr_r1_frame4.jpg,http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.tumblr.com%2Ftumblr_ltmo37IIIB1qgd3wr_r1_frame5.jpg')</script><br/><br/>http://explainedbacon.com/post/11909119341http://explainedbacon.com/post/11909119341Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:23:31 -0400