Any of you
Robert Wyatt fans know about this? He may only sing on the first song.
Auditorium
Just after a coworker recommended it to me, I sat down at my desk to find Jason had linked to the game, Auditorium. Creepy (the situation, not the game which is, however, equally unusual).
Photographing Bush
No, there is no relationship to my previous post, we are talking about our former President:
VINCENT AMALVY: In America it’s interesting because the position when you are part of the press pool, you have access to everywhere the president goes. And for me, that’s very important.
ERROL MORRIS: And different from Europe.
VINCENT AMALVY: Yes, different from everywhere else. It’s a different situation in Europe. In America when you are part of the presidential pool, you move everywhere with the president. It’s not that way in other countries. You don’t have the same quantity of free access to all these attitudes, pictures and opportunities. So that’s the reason. And that’s part of my job; it’s very interesting. When Barack Obama became the president-elect, there is the same access, same obligation as from the president to be as transparent as possible. But there’s no choice for him. He can’t decide, “No press now, yes, no.” In France or in Spain or in Germany or in the Middle East or whatever, it is different. The president decides where the press can go and where they can’t go. Here it is different. It’s one of the good points about your democracy. The power of the press is a reality in this country.
The Original Playboy Aesthetic
From an article about Hefner:
The centerfold’s signature is what we might call the “Playboyaesthetic”—something responsible both for Playboy‘s long run of success and its schmaltziness. As Hefner put it in a letter to Russ Meyer (director of Faster, Pussycat! Kill Kill!), the ideal centerfold is one in which “a situation is suggested, the presence of someone not in the picture.” The goal was to transform “a straight pinup into an intimate interlude, something personal and special.” Playboy readers are meant to be participants, not voyeurs. Hefner’s vision of American sexuality was a distinctly pasteurized one—sex cleansed of its ugly (and often exciting) power plays. “Clean sex,” he insisted, “has greater appeal than tawdry sex.” Strippers, threesomes and S&M had no place in his magazine. The Playboy centerfold was a world away from the European ideal of a sexually-sophisticated temptress. Hefner’s girls were always girls, first of all, or bunnies— not women. There was no knowing gleam in a centerfold’s eye.
It was bound to happen eventually.
Wikipedia is talking about changing its editorial structure:
Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, is proposing a system of flagged revisions, which would mean any changes made by a new or unknown user would have to be approved by one of the site’s editors, before the changes were published.
This would mean a radical shift from the site’s philosophy that ostensibly allows anyone to make changes to almost any entry.
In a blog entry, Mr Wales said the “nonsense” of the false reports would have been “100% prevented by Flagged Revision” and said he wanted the changes to be implemented as soon as possible.
the timed antagonistic response alethiometer
An alternative to the polygraph has been created based on the premise it takes longer to lie than tell the truth.
Aiden Gregg, a psychologist at Southampton University who developed the timed antagonistic response alethiometer (Tara), found that in 85% of cases interviewees were slower at faking answers than when telling the truth. Gregg believes that lying takes longer because it involves more complex cognitive activity.
The Tara test involves answering a series of questions displayed on a computer screen as quickly as possible by tapping responses on a keyboard. The programme records how long it takes each individual to answer and uses an algorithm to analyse the results.
Gregg said he built the test because he suspected that criminals were finding increasing ways to hide their dishonesty.
“Habitual liars heard that people look away when telling lies, so they stare directly into your eyes,” he said. “However, we are not getting any smarter at detecting lies, and that could have serious consequences.”
Dapper
It was a little pricey with conversion rates, but I figured I could justify it as a birthday present to myself. I love it and I no longer need to carry a wallet. The leather pocket you see on the front fits about three credit cards and a couple of folded bills.
Jonah Lehrer, How We Decide
Jonah Lehrer interviews himself about his new book on the neuroscience of decision-making.
Ever since the time of the ancient Greeks, we’ve assumed that humans are rational creatures. When we make a decision, we are supposed to consciously analyze the alternatives and carefully weigh the pros and cons. This simple idea underlies the philosophies of Plato and Descartes; it forms the foundation of modern economics; it drove decades of research in cognitive science. Over time, rationality came to define us. It was, simply put, what made us human. There’s only one problem with this assumption: it’s wrong. It’s not how the brain works. For the first time in human history, we can look inside our brain and see how we think. It turns out that we weren’t engineered to be rational or logical or even particularly deliberate. Instead, our mind holds a messy network of different areas, many of which are involved with the production of emotion. Whenever we make a decision, the brain is awash in feeling, driven by its inexplicable passions. Even when we try to be reasonable and restrained, these emotional impulses secretly influence our judgment.
(via sullivan)
Amy
You’re Full of It, Says Manure Industry
New York, NY — What a load. Hits the fan. Runs downhill. A lying sack of it.
Enough is enough, according to manure processors and resellers. Image is everything when it comes to marketplace perceptions, and the much-maligned poop business has decided to litigate for respect if it can’t earn it.
“It’s impossible to turn on the TV or use a computer without being bombarded by flawed examples harmful to our hard-earned brand equity,” Manure Trade Association president Raymond Tonewell said in a press release. “Gov. Rod Blagojevich, former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain, indicted broker Bernard Madoff — calling one of these guys ‘the biggest pile of feces’ damages our product’s reputation.”
Asus EeePC
Has any of you seen this thing? Messed with it?
My neologism
I’m pretty sure Deron knows this one, though the rest of you may not:
falk: verb intransitive: to fart while walking, especially when the motion of the buttocks breaks one long fart into a sequence of momentary staccato farts: usage: “I get so embarrassed at the mall with my stepfather. He falks like a Vespa with a tank of bad gas.”: forms of conjugation: falk, falked, falking; noun form: falker
Why not
have a listen to this one? It’s from Zero Church by Suzzy and Maggie Roche. I can’t remember the other vocalist’s name–he also wrote the song. “Allende” more or less means across or beyond. He’s naming the things–desert, mountains, pinche migra–that Latin-Americans have to get beyond to make it to the promised land: in a specific sense, the US; in a broader sense, well, you get it.
Today’s lesson . . .
is taken from the film version of The Ruling Class. Excerpts (assorted).
conversation at metro diner
What happened to your finger?
What’s that?
What happened to your finger?
Table saw.
Did you lose it?
The end of this one. It came across these other two.
[She stretches out her hand, mumbles something.]
What’s that?
Jesus’ blessing.
[The hand gesture again.]
You should come to our church. Get prayed for. The Eagle’s Nest.
What’s that?
The Eagle’s Nest.
Huh.
We had a woman from Orlando. Lost her leg from the knee to an eighteen wheeler. We laid hands on her, prayed for it. She grew the leg back with an ankle.
Wow.
Wore high heels.
It’s a miracle.
You should come out, have your hand prayed for.
Where’s your church?
I-30 and Jim Miller.
Yeah.
The Eagle’s Nest.
How long ago was this?
Eight or nine years. Grew right back. You know. Jesus’ power. He’s got all our parts waiting for us in heaven. All you got to do is ask.
[The Beach Boys' 'Sloop Jon B' on the radio.]
a.k.a. The InCindyator
Tourettes Machine is a firefox plugin that randomly adds swear words to your form fields and text areas as you type.
. . .
Versions:
There are two versions – moderate and extreme.
Moderate – adds insults every 3-5 words.
Extreme – adds insults every other damn word bitch.
. . .
The first in a series of experimental cunt firefox extensions.
Made by Theodore Watson for the FFFFF.AT Lab – Free Art and Technology!Have fun! slut
movies I have seen the most
a remembrance of heroes
Republican Congressmen express their love for W.
I do not think it means what you think it means
A relationship expert on the Obamas’ public displays of affection. I think what she meant to say was….
The Mac turns 25 today
goat steals car
Two Nigerian men stole a car and when cornered, apparently, one of the men turned into a goat.
In a front-page article on Friday, the Vanguard newspaper said that two men tried to steal a Mazda car two days earlier in Kwara State, with one suspect transforming himself into a goat as vigilantes cornered him.
The paper quoted police spokesman Tunde Mohammed as saying that while one suspect escaped, the other transformed into a goat as he was about to be apprehended.
The newspaper reported that police paraded the goat before journalists, and published a picture of the animal.
Police in the state couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Rut Roh*
Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case?
The Obama administration fell in line with the Bush administration Thursday when it urged a federal judge to set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.
*As in, what Scooby would say
Why Apple should get into banking.
An interesting proposal that argues Apple is in a better position to do banking than banks:
Take the company’s balance sheet. Wednesday’s quarterly earnings reportshows it sitting on more than $25 billion in cash and short-term securities. Forget about leverage—Apple carries no long-term debt whatsoever. In this alone, Apple holds an advantage over banks currently in operation: A number of major banks, from neighborhoody Sovereign Bank to the much larger Capital One, don’t have as much cash on hand. Imagine what would happen if Apple sequestered just half of this cash as seed funding for its new bank and set aside $2.5 billion of that half for capital and startup costs. At regulated reserve ratios, that means the company could lend out up to $100 billion to hungry consumers and businesses. The personal-electronics giant in being is a personal-finance giant in waiting.
Pants Optional
Can’t be explained, really, just seen. (via Hysterical Paroxysm)
three fish, one and the same
Cetomimidae, a type of whalefish, had been known since the 19th century, but only females had been found.
Seemingly related species called Mirapinnidae, or tapetails, and Megalomycteridae, or bignose fish, were identified in the 1950s and 1960s. Tapetails were only found as juveniles and bignoses only as males.
Although their skeletons indicated the three were related, there were so many differences no one could believe they were the same fish at different sexes or stages in life, Johnson said.
But it turns out that is the case.
All three will now be classified as Cetomimidae, he said.
