https://disqus.com/by/sonofbruce/enTue, 04 Dec 2018 21:52:04 -0000https://entropymag.org/it-is-always-your-problem/#comment-4225797400<p>Thanks for speaking up.</p>Dave BontaTue, 04 Dec 2018 21:52:04 -0000http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/its-contemplative-returnvikings-asks-who-wants-be--246534#comment-3030725210<p>You can watch it online: <a href="http://www.history.com/shows/vikings" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="http://www.history.com/shows/vikings">http://www.history.com/show...</a></p>Dave BontaFri, 02 Dec 2016 00:40:04 -0000http://www.wearecentralpa.com/news/obama-administration-to-issue-guidance-on-transgender-bathrooms#comment-2674261825<p>There is no constitutionally guaranteed right to be comfortable. People need to get a grip and not get suckered by national campaigns from anti-LGBT hate groups designed to whip up public hysteria over non-existent problems.</p>Dave BontaFri, 13 May 2016 15:23:19 -0000http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/its-mid-season-finale-vikings-sails-beyond-expecta-235500#comment-2638340365<p>Excellent theory!</p>Dave BontaSat, 23 Apr 2016 00:43:47 -0000http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/vikings-paris-invasion-proceeds-ragnars-still-lost-235279#comment-2626338501<p>Let's not forget though that Sigurd has a fucking snake in his eye.</p>Dave BontaSat, 16 Apr 2016 00:46:41 -0000http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/trio-shocks-sees-vikings-straining-impact-234928#comment-2614183087<p>Thanks. Actually I've commented on previous episodes as sonofbruce, but for some reason Disqus has more than one login for me, so those are associated with some other account. Whatever. My point about NOVA is that I was rather annoyed by their breathless sensationalizing, e.g. "Never before have scientists been able to see below the surface of the earth!" I don't doubt that the new technique will continue to break new ground (heh), but in many parts of the world the problem is not so much knowing where to dig as having the resources to dig. Most tells in the Middle East have yet to be excavated, for example.</p>Dave BontaSat, 09 Apr 2016 01:09:02 -0000http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/trio-shocks-sees-vikings-straining-impact-234928#comment-2614112778<p>My biggest pet peeve: Why not just make TV series out of the sagas? It would be hard to improve on Egil or Grettir or Njal.</p>Dave BontaFri, 08 Apr 2016 23:38:30 -0000http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/trio-shocks-sees-vikings-straining-impact-234928#comment-2614103656<p>Chris, with due respect, it's not quite as revolutionary as NOVA made out. Archaeologists have been finding buried walls and ditches for decades now, by looking at aerial photographs of fields and pastures in drought conditions. The main difference is that this use of near-infrared imagery gives more consistent access to that data. And that archaeologist from UAB is dynamite.</p>Dave BontaFri, 08 Apr 2016 23:28:02 -0000http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/d/story/unkempt-grass-and-snakes-upset-empty-home-neighbor/33126/pjbgw5LeiEuajtgi5LcGHA#comment-2100477737<p>I'm sure your concern for your nephew is every bit as sincere as your sudden interest in my spiritual well-being, and not at all something you'd cynically exploit to try to win points in a debate.</p>Dave BontaThu, 25 Jun 2015 19:09:30 -0000http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/d/story/unkempt-grass-and-snakes-upset-empty-home-neighbor/33126/pjbgw5LeiEuajtgi5LcGHA#comment-2099388815<p>And he has a responsibility to educate himself about the actual threat posed by wildlife which also has a right to live there.</p>Dave BontaThu, 25 Jun 2015 12:17:44 -0000http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/d/story/unkempt-grass-and-snakes-upset-empty-home-neighbor/33126/pjbgw5LeiEuajtgi5LcGHA#comment-2099330471<p>Much more likely to be milk snake habitat. A lot of people confuse the two for some reason.</p>Dave BontaThu, 25 Jun 2015 12:06:08 -0000http://www.wearecentralpa.com/story/d/story/unkempt-grass-and-snakes-upset-empty-home-neighbor/33126/pjbgw5LeiEuajtgi5LcGHA#comment-2099188155<p>People who are afraid of nature should not live in the country. With all the "clean farming" and lawn-mower fetishists around here, there's very little meadow habitat left for wildlife—which, yes, includes snakes.</p>Dave BontaThu, 25 Jun 2015 11:29:24 -0000http://theamericanscholar.org/finish-what-dickinson-started/#comment-1688445546<p>Soft as the massacre of Suns<br>
By Evening’s Sabres slain -<br>My undead flesh - but what the Hell -<br>At least I feel no Pain -</p>Dave BontaTue, 11 Nov 2014 15:39:31 -0000http://cityartsonline.com/articles/stop-using-%E2%80%9Cpoet-voice%E2%80%9D#comment-1491021631<p>The hostile commenters here all seem to take issue with the author daring to criticize great poets or real writers — a good illustration of just how elitist the American poetry community has become. It's an in-group, and poet voice is one of the markers of membership in that group. The fact that it almost invariably makes non-initiates cringe may be part of the point, actually. (And yes, the spoken word crowd has an affectation, too: that loud indrawing-of-breath thing they do at every pause, as if they're fish out of water unaccustomed to breathing air.)</p>Dave BontaFri, 18 Jul 2014 03:47:18 -0000http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/05/youtube-parody-as-politics-how-the-world-made-pharrell-cry/371380/#comment-1399133146<p>It's interesting that despite the insistence of the "We Are Happy From" curators that the song is purely about being happy and therefore apolitical, it went from global mega-hit to advertising jingle in record time, appearing in a TV ad for Fiat on February 13. Because we all know that happiness and consumption are inextricably linked. But please, no tacky environmental remixes...</p>Dave BontaThu, 22 May 2014 06:54:59 -0000http://dreamhost.com/dreamscape/2013/02/12/dreamhost-presents-dreamscape/#comment-797419189<p>The fixed header takes up an inordinate amount of screen real estate. It kinda gives the impression that brand promotion is a higher priority than "community" building.</p>Dave BontaWed, 13 Feb 2013 01:55:19 -0000http://venturebeat.com/2013/02/04/fcc-plans-powerful-nationwide-wi-fi-also-rainbows-and-ice-cream-for-everyone/#comment-788821721<p>"many rural areas." Uh-huh. I'm not going to break out the champagne just yet.</p>Dave BontaMon, 04 Feb 2013 20:31:27 -0000http://htmlgiant.com/film/laurel-nakadates-untitled-pornstars-reading-poems/#comment-583149046<p>Unfortunately, the video appears to have been made private. </p>Dave BontaTue, 10 Jul 2012 10:44:51 -0000http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/03/a-slow-books-manifesto/254884/#comment-476426539<p>The author seems unaware that there is already a Slow Reading movement with similar aims. John Miedema's book, Slow Reading, is a good starting point: <a href="http://litwinbooks.com/slowreading.php" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="http://litwinbooks.com/slowreading.php">http://litwinbooks.com/slow...</a><br></p>Dave BontaMon, 26 Mar 2012 10:23:28 -0000http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/3260-same-day-return-film-poem.html#comment-421451224<p>I like this one a lot. I love how the train sound meshed with the music. Not sure though why the voice is restricted to one channel -- it makes it a little hard to follow.</p>Dave BontaThu, 26 Jan 2012 10:47:46 -0000http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/25/99-percent-hershey-kisses/#comment-372587313<p>@Michael Williams Money is actually a relatively poor motivator, I think, except for the small percentage of people with a lust for power. Pride in workmanship, the desire to be useful, the desire to help others, the need to put bread on the table and raise a family -- these are the sorts of things that motivate ordinary people. I see this website is running on WordPress. I imagine it also uses MySQL, Apache and Linux. All products developed by people who were not out to make a quick buck.</p>Dave BontaFri, 25 Nov 2011 23:15:36 -0000http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_soundcloud_the_next_youtube.php#comment-339929080<p>I've taken to using Soundcloud a lot lately in my search for Creative Commons-licensed music for use as soundtracks in non-commercial videos. Other music- and sound-sharing sites that are useful in this regard are <a href="http://Jamendo.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="Jamendo.com">Jamendo.com</a>, <a href="http://dig.ccmixter.org" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="dig.ccmixter.org">dig.ccmixter.org</a> and <a href="http://freesound.org" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="freesound.org">freesound.org</a>. But more often than not, it's Soundcloud that will have the best selection -- and the ability to do advanced searches within CC-licensed content is a huge help.</p>Dave BontaThu, 20 Oct 2011 11:20:23 -0000http://www.robertpeake.com/archives/2838-the-film-poem.html#comment-321061673<p>Nice piece. Happy to see some examples of the genre(s) whcih I haven't yet run across in my efforts to curate the best online examples at <a href="http://movingpoems.com" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" title="http://movingpoems.com">http://movingpoems.com</a>. In additiona to the terms you cite, there are also "videopoem" and "cinepoem" and variations thereon, not to mention related genres of animated poems and kinetic word videos. The disctinction between video and film is kind of academic in the digital age. In North America, we tend to associate "film" slightly more with the actual analog medium, but Alastair Cook told me that in Britain, "video" feels more analog-ish, and "film" seems like the more general term -- hence in part the distinction. There's also the historical circumstance that when North american avant-garde artists began melding videotape with poetry in the 70s, they found themselves excluded from film festivals. So for example the leading videopoetry theorist Tom Konyves (great guy, BTW) continues to insist on the "video" part -- it has historical resonance for him. (See the About page of the aforementioned site for a few links to pieces about these genres.)</p><p>Thanks for helping to spread the word about whatever we're calling this! And do let me know when you start making your own.</p>Dave BontaTue, 27 Sep 2011 15:03:37 -0000http://robmack.blogspot.com/2011/07/meltdown-2011-poetry-society.html#comment-246451561<p>First I'd heard of this truly epic brawl (to judge from the Guardian's coverage, which I just caught up with). So glad that poet-fights aren't confined to our side of the pond! I just think we need to have poem-duels to settle such things, the way they do in Greenland and Yemen.</p>Dave BontaFri, 08 Jul 2011 21:08:45 -0000https://www.greenogreindia.org/assassins-in-the-garden-death-of-mango-tree/#comment-218378426<p>I love the writing and the ealth of details hee, even if the staory is a sad one.</p>Dave BontaSat, 04 Jun 2011 21:31:28 -0000