In the interest of fostering rational arguments I'm going to present a common fallacy with each day's links. Today's fallacy is: Joint Effect

• Prolific Chronicler of Small-Town Angst - washingtonpost.com

  John Updike, whose finely polished novels and stories exploring the virtues, vices and spent hopes of America's small towns and suburbs earned him two Pulitzer Prizes and kept him at the pinnacle of the nation's literary life for five decades, died yesterday at a hospice near his home in Beverly Farms, Mass. He was 76 and had lung cancer.

  Virtues and vices indeed, I've read most of Updike's writing. Many complain that he writes nothing more than beautiful sentences. It's a harsh assessment and in my opinion not true. His plots may not be as compelling as some, but they are good nonetheless. But if it were nothing but the beautiful sentences that would be enough for me. A friend once said, you know what Updike will be famous for when he dies, his penis descriptions. Those of you who have read more than a couple of Updike's novels no exactly what my friend was getting at. Here is my favorite example from his novel Brazil

  ...Standing with her in the warming waterfall, soaping her skin so its yielding silk was overlaid with a white grease, and then letting her soap him in turn, he felt his cashew become a banana, and then a rippled yam, bursting with weight. She soaped him there seriously, bending her oval head into the pounding water to see better the swollen veins, the purple-black skin, the violet heart-shaped one-eyed glans. As she inspected, the partings of her hair showed her scalp to be pink--not white, as he had expected. When the shower was over, she said, still looking, her fingers tracing one vein, "So that's what it is. I like it. It is ugly but innocent, like a toad."

  What are others saying of John Updike.



• Coffee Linked to Lower Dementia Risk - NYTimes.com



• Another Potential Benefit of Cutting Calories - Better Memory - Fat chance.


• mystic bourgeoisie: uplifting sentiments: a passing observation


• GOP Marketing Makeover Hits Snag: How do you rebrand stupid?—By Ken Silverstein (Harper's Magazine)

  I've got it, dumb and dumber.



• How I Made a 1,474-Megapixel Photo During President Obama’s Inaugural Address | David Bergman -- ALL ACCESS -- sports, concert, and music photographer(tip to pedantsareus)


• Inhabitat » Europe’s Grass-Lined Green Railways = Good Urban Design