January 16

James Kwak at The Baseline Scenario speculates as to whether the sort of glitches consumers routinely run into are the result of (descending the ladder) incompetence, unconscious inattention, conscious inattention, or sinister design. Call me paranoid, but I opt for sinister design:

http://baselinescenario.com/2010/01/15/design-or-incompetence/

The Daily Beast offers a helpful primer of books and other materials on Haiti:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-01-15/speed-read-the-best-books-on-haiti/?cid=topic:topnav:book

John Kenneth Muir has written a truly interesting review of Rob Zombie's Halloween 2:

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2010/01/cult-movie-review-halloween-2-2009.html

The Diary Junction introduced me to the Australian artist and diarist Donald Friend (1915-1989), whose work (like that of British novelist Norman Douglas, 1868-1952) raises the interesting question, what do you think about an obviously gifted individual who is also clearly a pedophile? My take is that if I had to start approving of artists' lives, behaviors, and beliefs in order to like or be interested in their work, pretty soon there would be no one left for me to like.

http://thediaryjunction.blogspot.com/2010/01/friends-diaries-found.html

Among notables born on this date are novelist William Kennedy, critic Susan Sontag, mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne, poet Laura Riding, film director John Carpenter, theatrical jack-of-all-trades Edward Gordon Craig, zoologist Dian Fossey, French memoirist Duc de Saint-Simon, singer Ethel Merman, and avant-garde composers Gavin Bryars and Brian Ferneyhough. Although I like Susan Sontag just fine, I must admit that Camille Paglia's denunciation of her former heroine, "Sontag, Bloody Sontag" (in the collection Vamps and Tramps), makes highly amusing reading. These two women were made for MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch, which never scheduled this obvious bout, probably because it would have mystified their core demographic. It would have made a good show, though.