parking lot entrance
Grating set into the driveway, at the edge of a parking lot on the South side of Pittsburgh.
Leave me the F__k alone
I, ERIK ANTHONY SLYE, being first duly sworn upon oath, depose and say that jury service would entail undue hardship on me and that I request to be excused from jury service for the following reasons:
Apparently you morons didn’t understand me the first time. I CANNOT take time off from work. I’m not putting my familys well being at stake to participate in this crap. I don’t believe in our “justice” system and I don’t want to have a goddamn thing to do with it. Jury duty is a complete waste of time. I would rather count the wrinkles on my dogs balls than sit on a jury. Get it through your thick skulls.
Leave me the F__k alone.
Y’all?
I’m in a place where I don’t know quite where to be…
Just got off the phone with my brother. I know there are believers and non-believers alike among the ‘flock. As near as I can estimate, there’s nothin’ wrong with either position. It amounts to me such as like “none of us know what is pertinent in this equation.” We move. We do. As is given to us to do. We have skills to bear upon it. Some skills are just what is needed in a moment. Some skills we will learn as we go though the days to come.
For me it isn’t about prayer for a miracle. Somehow, it’s more like meeting the days to come with Grace and “owning” the part we played in the end of our days.
Holy crap, people? Is this how it goes?
Reggie Watts
Pure Genius. (via lonelysandwich)
I can see your plan is working
Wolfram Alpha Video
A couple weeks ago, Andrew posted about Wolfram Alpha, a natural language search engine currently in development. Since then, The Berkman Center at Harvard posted this video demonstration of the technology.
marshmellows and metacognition
Or, the science of delayed gratification:
At the time, psychologists assumed that children’s ability to wait depended on how badly they wanted the marshmallow. But it soon became obvious that every child craved the extra treat. What, then, determined self-control? Mischel’s conclusion, based on hundreds of hours of observation, was that the crucial skill was the “strategic allocation of attention.” Instead of getting obsessed with the marshmallow—the “hot stimulus”—the patient children distracted themselves by covering their eyes, pretending to play hide-and-seek underneath the desk, or singing songs from “Sesame Street.” Their desire wasn’t defeated—it was merely forgotten. “If you’re thinking about the marshmallow and how delicious it is, then you’re going to eat it,” Mischel says. “The key is to avoid thinking about it in the first place.”
In adults, this skill is often referred to as metacognition, or thinking about thinking, and it’s what allows people to outsmart their shortcomings. (When Odysseus had himself tied to the ship’s mast, he was using some of the skills of metacognition: knowing he wouldn’t be able to resist the Sirens’ song, he made it impossible to give in.) Mischel’s large data set from various studies allowed him to see that children with a more accurate understanding of the workings of self-control were better able to delay gratification. “What’s interesting about four-year-olds is that they’re just figuring out the rules of thinking,” Mischel says. “The kids who couldn’t delay would often have the rules backwards. They would think that the best way to resist the marshmallow is to stare right at it, to keep a close eye on the goal. But that’s a terrible idea. If you do that, you’re going to ring the bell before I leave the room.”
According to Mischel, this view of will power also helps explain why the marshmallow task is such a powerfully predictive test. “If you can deal with hot emotions, then you can study for the S.A.T. instead of watching television,” Mischel says. “And you can save more money for retirement. It’s not just about marshmallows.”
trash day in Anchorage
Bear human interaction is increasing in Anchorage Alaska.
Last summer, some children walking home from school encountered a large grizzly. They huddled up in a driveway, made lots of noise to scare off the bear and called for help on their cell phones.
Phillips, who was at her job 20 minutes away, got a call.
“My kids are screaming ‘There is a grizzly bear. We can’t get home,’” she said.
To help combat the problem the city has offered bear-proof trashcans to residents.
“You can sit on the deck and look from our windows and watch them cruise the neighborhood looking for people that don’t use bear cans. They literally go from driveway to driveway to driveway,” Phillips said.
retro lamborghini
As any sportscar aficionado worth his salt will tell you, Ferruccio Lamborghini started out building tractors and only got into the sportscar business to piss off Enzo Ferrari.
beginner’s mind
Jonah Lehrer, author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist, on the minds of infants:
Although scientists have long held the lack of a functional prefrontal cortex responsible for all sorts of “childish” behaviors, researchers are beginning to realize that, sometimes, it might actually be better to allow the prefrontal cortex to loosen its grip.
A recent brain scanning experiment by researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that jazz musicians in the midst of improvisation — they were playing a specially designed keyboard in a brain scanner — showed dramatically reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex. It was only by “deactivating” this brain area that the musicians were able to spontaneously invent new melodies. The scientists compare this unwound state of mind with that of dreaming during REM sleep, meditation, and other creative pursuits, such as the composition of poetry. But it also resembles the thought process of a young child, albeit one with musical talent. Baudelaire was right: “Genius is nothing more nor less than childhood recovered at will.”
Sometimes the inside of Cindy’s head
sounds um, not at all like this, as it turns out.
Screw it, Let’s do it
This song reminds everybody of somebody.
Just found myself thinking about her, not really sure why: it was a long time ago.
Little Mac
(via Waxy)
City Skyline
A view of Glasgow’s skyline from the Lighthouse
holy shit!
These guys are good at beer pong.
quote out of context
Having abandoned his once lucrative career, Dr. William Coulson now lectures to Catholic and Protestant groups on the dangers of psychotherapy, with a particular emphasis upon the “encounter group” dynamic.
Eight Postcards from Vietnam
A former VC, Mr. Hanh, told me about Bay Dom, an ARVN general who was in charge of the Chau Doc area during the war: “Bay Dom could not be shot with a bullet. Once he dared an American advisor to shoot him several times, point-blank, with a pistol! But the American missed him each time! The only way you could kill him was to shoot him in the eye!”
“Which eye?” I asked him.
“Either eye! The eyes and the asshole! But it has to be a bullet aimed right into the asshole. Once Bay Dom sat on a hand grenade but it would not explode!”
I thought it strange that Hanh would elevate a former enemy to a mythical figure. A scrawny man in his early fifties, he wore a gold earring in his left ear and talked with a vast repertoire of hand flourishes and facial expressions. His wife told me later that her husband had become gay after a recent blood transfusion.
“You mean he’s HIV positive?”
“No, just gay.”
By Linh Dinh, in the Literary Review, n.d.
Spoken in Tongues II
To etot oe
Dan cingve ryclose
Bar elybre at hing
Alm ostco mato se
Wall tow all
Pe opleh yp not ised
Andt heyres teppin glightly
Han geach nigh tinrapt ure
Backt ob ack
Sac rail iac
Spin elessmo vement
An dawil dat tack
Facet of ace
Sad lyso litu de
An ditsfin gerpop ping
Twen tyf our hours hop pin ginrapt ure
Fabfi vefred diet old meeve ryb odyshigh
Djs spinninares avin mym ind
Flas hisfast flas hi scool
Franco issez fas flas henodo
Andy oudont stopsu reshot
Goo uttot hepar king lot
Andy ouget inyo urca randy oudri vereal far
Andy oudri ve allnigh tandt hen youse ealight
And itco mesright dow nand land sont heg round
And outco mesam anfrom mars
Andy outry tor unbut hesgo tagun
Andhes hootsyo udea dan dhee atsyou rhead
Andt hen you reint hem anfrom mars
Yo ugo outat nigh teatinc ars
Youe atcad il lacslinc olnstoo
Mercu rie sand suba rus
Andy oudont stopy oukeepo neat incars
The nwhent her esnomo recars
Yougo outat nigh tandea tupbars wher ethepe opleme et
Facet of ace dan ceche ektoche ek
Onet oonem antom an
Dan ceto etot oe
Dontmo vetoos low causet hem anfrom mars
Isth rough with carsh esea tinbars
Ye ahwall towall do ortodo or hall toh all
Hesgon nae at emall
Rapt ureb epu re
Takeat ourth rough thesewer
Donts train yo urb rain pain tatrain
Yo ullbe sin gin int herain
Isa id donts top dop unkrock
Wellno wyous eew hatyo uwan nabe
Jus thav eyo urpar tyon tv
Ca use them anfrom mars wonteat upbar swhen thetv son
Andno whesgo neback uptos pace
Wher ehew ontha veahass lewith thehum anra ce
And youhi phopand yo udonts top
Just blas toffs ures hot
Ca uset hem anfrom mars stoppe deat incar sand eatin bars
Andno wheon lyeats guitarsge tup
I will stay here all my life and I’ll still be excited
Sangfroid
I love my friends. I’d written Lee to say I was struggling to maintain my sangfroid.
“Happily driving around,” she replied, “now that I have bought the new 2010 SANGFROID!”
local man hired for internet skills
Alvin’s credentials, forged during his 10 year tenure of operating the computer in his bedroom, include a vast array of comments on his friends’ Facebook photos, ranging from the observational (“u look funny there lol”) to the philosophical (“u seem funny there lol”). He also possesses a wealth of over 500 pictures of cats with captions written on them.
“Most of these I didn’t make myself,” he explained to a delighted cadre of CNN reporters, “but I did find them on the internet.”
can you tell what I was doing yesterday?
I kind of like it
Rickard Rehnberg and Thitathorn Sukjit of Sweden are fighting for the legal authority to name their son Q.
“There is now a child who answers to the name of Q. What does Sweden gain by forcing him to take on a new name?” they said.
Down home flavor provides the taste of scratch
I find myself captivated by the Creative Food and Beverage Solutions of the Nestle Professional product line.
MINOR’S® Beef Gravy Concentrate (No Added MSG)* 1x25lb
Features and Benefits
Fresh, flavorful premium ingredients concentrated in refrigerated pastes. Down home flavor provides the taste of scratch. Steam-table and cook/chill stable for hours.
