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Johnnie Cochran, R.I.P.
"Cochran died at his home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles of an inoperable brain tumor, according to his brother-in-law Bill Baker. His wife and his two sisters were with him at the time of his death.
"Cochran, his family and colleagues were secretive about his illness to protect the attorney's privacy as well as the network of Cochran law offices that largely draw their cachet from his presence. But Cochran confirmed in a Sept. 2004 interview with The Times that he was being treated by the eminent neurosurgeon Keith Black at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles."
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 3:27 PM on March 29, 2005
(91 comments)
Idle your visual cortexes on this ...
There's some interesting science in here about how much of our brains we humans use, but for the rest of today I'll be using my spare brainwidth to picture "The Matrix" with ferrets. (via
Dynamist, via PunditDrome!)
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 7:03 AM on October 21, 2004
(7 comments)
MJ pro-tech, anti-jail:
"I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans -- mostly teenagers -- in jail for downloading music," he said in a statement from his Neverland Ranch in the western state of California.
"It is wrong to illegally download, but the answer cannot be jail. Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws, and we should look to new technologies ... for solutions. This way, innovation continues to be the hallmark of America. It is the fans that drive the success of the music."
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 2:15 AM on July 22, 2003
(23 comments)
General Zod's homepage
"You are very wise to visit my web page and pay tribute. You may not be aware of this but the Bush monarchy is no longer in office. They have been replaced with my new order. Read on and you'll discover that I am a peerless master of politics, spearheading a generous and benevolent administration (meaning, of course, that you are allowed to live)."
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 2:07 AM on August 23, 2001
(10 comments)
Powell won't serenade his peers at Asian meeting
The U.S. Secretary of State has finally found something that's above and beyond the call of duty. And it's a shame, really. I mean, what would his singing voice sound like? I must know! Would it put Vietnam Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien's folk song to shame? Would he have a dusky, husky Barry White purr or a silky Harry Belafonte rasp?
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 9:50 AM on July 20, 2001
(7 comments)
Talking the talk: An interview with John McWhorter
Speaking of
linguistics and whatnot, I've been thumbing through the new-look
East Bay Express. I read this, and I feel like
McWhorter's never gotten over some black people wrongly labeling him as an Oreo cookie (never had someone assure him, in response to epithets like those, that there are 35 million ways of being African-American -- and that many of them involve fluency in "totally ass-kicking SWE," to reference
David Foster Wallace's essay on Bryan Garner's new usage book in Harper's a couple of months ago).
I appreciate his iconoclasm (hell, like myself, he voted for Nader) and I'm willing to concede points of his basic argument and that I agree with him on some (the whole "niggardly" thing; the Ebonics controversy) points.
But after reading this, I wound up feeling irritated with him -- and especially put off by allowing himself to be
misrespresented marketed as a conservative and, despite his vaunted speaking ability and academic credentials, his inability to get his points across in the media.
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 10:43 PM on July 6, 2001
(13 comments)
Death in threes?
Jonno pointed it out about six weeks ago, and I thought to myself that he was right. But man, the deaths are coming thick and fast now. The score, for those of us playing along at home, is: Musicians' deaths, 3 (
John Lee Hooker, Chet Atkins and
Joe Henderson), actors' deaths: 2 (
Carroll O'Connor, Jack Lemmon) and Net folks' deaths, 2 (
Jim Ellis and
Michael Hauben. (Boozoo Chavis' passing, noted by
fooljay, could be totted up in the musicians' column as well. Anthony Quinn and Joan Sims could go in the actors' column, if (like
harrycaul and
wackybrit, you were so inclined.)
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 5:32 PM on July 1, 2001
(5 comments)
Tulsa Race Riots of 1921: Who pays?
I don't think Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating's pledge to fundraise for a memorial/museum will suffice as a remedy -- or cut much mustard with survivors and their families. (Background info
here.)
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 3:35 AM on March 1, 2001
(26 comments)
Steve Jobs on selling apps based on life beyond the Net
"I edited a digital movie of my children using our iMovie software," he said. "It took me about an hour, and when I showed it to my wife, she started crying. It was clearly the most emotional thing I've ever done on a computer in my life." ...
"The Internet is a wonderful thing and for a while it was such a blinding bright light that it obscured every other bright light," he said. "It's a wonderful thing, it's a magical thing, but there are other wonderful things too. Music is a wonderful thing. Movies are wonderful things."
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 3:52 AM on January 21, 2001
(13 comments)
Ang Lee to direct "Hulk"
Now that's a "green destiny" I can't wait to see. Sure hope it comes to fruition before the estimated theater date of 2003. And they're going to set it in Berkeley, Calif. -- schweet!
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 11:02 AM on January 12, 2001
(8 comments)
Wen Ho Lee Singled Out...
...but not on
MTV, oh no no no. Amazing how long it's taken for the case against him to fall apart. It's been like water torture, the steady drip of accusations. The first clue that it wasn't gonna happen was the idea that he might have been
padding his résumé. Dig how one of the agents compares the snafu to an earlier spy case where the suspect was white. I think we're looking at one, maybe two mid-level resignations over this -- and zero noise from the presidential candidates.
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 2:52 AM on September 1, 2000
(2 comments)
Politics and strange bedfellows
It's like slowing down to watch a car wreck, but more compelling. It's the scene from "Waiting to Exhale," when Angela Bassett took a match to her husband's belongings, writ large. It's probably not the start of a take-no-shorts stance from more political wives, as exemplified by the Giuliani/Hanover ruckus in New York, but it's still noteworthy: I never heard of Coretta Scott King, Effi Barry, Jackie Jackson or any other African American political wife doing something like this before.
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 1:12 PM on August 30, 2000
(8 comments)
Monday morning quarterbacking: Gore/Lieberman '00
I could've sworn it was going to be Massachusetts' own John Kerry. With New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Missouri's Dick Gephardt removing themselves from the running, this was probably the
most courageous choice, and makes Cheney look even sillier than before. The downside is that the Connecticut senator's disapproval of Clinton during the Monicagate scandal may wind up calling more negative attention to Gore than positive. And then there's the bigotry, both veiled and unveiled, that no doubt is already on the way in ads, whisper campaigns and so on. I wonder to what extent was Gore's choice rushed by Bush's huge post-convention bounce. Did I miss any ramifications? Anyone care to play Dennis Miller here?
posted to MetaFilter by allaboutgeorge
at 8:11 AM on August 7, 2000
(17 comments)
