Author Archives: A. S. Kolendo

Eric Ripert’s New Knife Case

By A. S. Kolendo | Published: April 3, 2011
Ripert flipped through a book of leather designs and nixed the Louis Vuitton logo. “It’s a little over the top,” he said. “Like, ‘This guy’s coming to cut fish!’ ” The New Yorker article about Eric Ripert’s new knife case is charming and pairs well with the set of photos he himself posted on Facebook. [...]
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Research Diary: Soviet cars

By A. S. Kolendo | Published: April 1, 2011
To be honest, as I tried to figure out what the Volga looked like in 1970, I half expected it to look just like it did when I was a kid in the 1980s. So what I found was a little surprising. BEHOLD: a souped up Volga manufactured in the 1960s especially for the KGB.
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Rebecca Newberger Goldstein’s 36 Arguments for the Existence of God

By A. S. Kolendo | Published: March 24, 2010
36 Arguments for the Existence of God opens with its protagonist, the famous atheist author Cass Seltzer, in the middle of an existential crisis: he thinks—perhaps even furtively hopes—that he has finally found a rational argument in favor of god’s existence that he can’t refute. The book that had made Seltzer famous came in two [...]
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SXSW Redux

By A. S. Kolendo | Published: March 22, 2010
The carnival that is South By has now left Austin. Here are three bands that made the lines, the crowds, and the persistent desire to amputate my feet after all the standing completely worthwhile: 1. Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings 2. Carolina Chocolate Drops 3. Frightened Rabbit
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I, for one, welcome our new robotic overlords

By A. S. Kolendo | Published: March 12, 2010
A computer program named Emily Howell writes music that some say is indistinguishable from pieces composed by humans. In this post, we wonder at the potential consequences.
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Link Roundup

By A. S. Kolendo | Published: March 11, 2010
Links for the week of March 8th, 2010, featuring DFW, Jane Austen Amazon reviews, a literary mystery, and a search for a lost home in Ukraine.
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