Daily Office: Thursday
¶ Matins: The ACLU has brought suit on behalf of a student who was unreasonably detained by TSA operatives simply because he was carrying Arabic-language flash cards (“to smile,” “funny,” &c). This sort of thing makes us feel that we’re in a Laurel & Hardy sketch, but one in which the pratfalls really hurt, and may even be fatal. (Crooks And Liars; via MetaFilter)
¶ Lauds: We’ve all seen the tantrum scene from Der Untergang (Downfall) at least half a dozen times, each reiteration spliced to different, highly parodic subtitles. Linda Yablonsky is brave but correct to praise the latest entry, “Hitler Learns MOCA Job Goes to Jeffrey Deitch.” The clip is funny in a way that it wouldn’t be if, say, it were “Hitler Learns New Yorker job goes to William Shawn.” (T)
¶ Prime: Felix Salmon slams the nonsense that is “market reporting.”
¶ Tierce: At The Infrastructurist, Yonah Freemark reports on the use of robots to clear the floor of the Baltic Sea of mines left over from World War II, in connection with the controversial laying of a natural gas pipeline.
¶ Sext: Maria Popova shares links to six on-line sources of inexpensive artwork. We went right over to Eye Buy Art and bought two photographs by Ryan Schude. (Brain Pickings)
¶ Nones: Slow boats to China are hot right now — and maybe forever. Elisabeth Rosenthal’s “Slow Trip Across Sea Aids Profit and Environment.” (NYT)
¶ Vespers: Garth Risk Hallberg nominates Dave Eggers as the next editor of The Paris Review, and follows it up with a persuasive discussion, placing both the periodical and the writer in a context that has them looking made for each other. (The Millions)
¶ Compline: We’ve been reading bits and pieces of Lawrence Lessig’s “How to Get Our Democracy Back” for so many days now that we didn’t think that it could be news (according to Christopher Shea at Brainiac) that the proposal is the “most trafficked” item at The Nation‘s site in the past six months. In fact, it is dated 3 February, so we have been reading it for ages. But it has begun to sound the ring of a classic declaration.