tweet of the day
the legend of Mexican Coke
There are a number of pretty clear conclusions that can be drawn from these tests. To put it simply, when it comes to taste, there’s this simple relationship: Boosterism > Tasting = Feeling, meaning that while there are an equal number of people who are affected by the flavor of Coke as there are affected by the feel of the container, both of these groups are eclipsed once you add in knowledge of the product’s provenance. Those folks who prefer Mexican Coke (like myself), really just like the idea of Mexican Coke — whether it’s because they think real sugar is tastier/healthier than corn syrup, whether it’s because Mexican Coke is more expensive and harder to find, thus more valuable, whether it’s because of its exoticism, whatever the reason — strip away the Mexicanness of it, and suddenly it’s a lot less appealing.
Serious Eats did a series of taste tests pitting bottled and or Mexican Coke against the alternatives. I’ll leave you to read through to find out which combination people actually preferred, but the results are interesting at least as much for what they say about the subjective nature of our preferences.
The 2011 MacArthur Fellowships
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation today named 22 new MacArthur Fellows for 2011. Working across a broad spectrum of endeavors, the Fellows include an architect, a sports medicine researcher, a cellist, a developmental biologist, a radio producer, a neurologist, a conservator, a poet, a technologist, and a public historian.
My favorite public bathroom
in Chicago is in IIT’s McCormick Tribune Campus Center, designed by Rem Koolhaas and OMA. I’ve loitered in it twice within 24 hours — and I’m staying and working three miles north of IIT.
I think Deron wants to move in. Whether into the bathroom or the Center generally, I’m not sure.
Statement by the President on the Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
Today, the discriminatory law known as ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ is finally and formally repealed. As of today, patriotic Americans in uniform will no longer have to lie about who they are in order to serve the country they love. As of today, our armed forces will no longer lose the extraordinary skills and combat experience of so many gay and lesbian service members. And today, as Commander in Chief, I want those who were discharged under this law to know that your country deeply values your service.
You can read the rest here.
gaming for science and health
Over a three-week period, gamers playing Foldit, an online protein-folding game, helped to map out the structure of an enzyme that could be used to help fight HIV and AIDS.
Bill Cunningham New York
Jason posted recently about the Bill Cunningham New York documentary, and we watched it last night. It is beautifully done in a straightforward way, and really the subject is what causes the movie to shine. At 80, Cunningham is still buoyant and exuberant, with a clear passion for what he loves: taking pictures of fashion as it is worn by people on the streets of New York (once you see the movie you’ll understand the awkward phrasing). He is the original Sartorialist. The movie is streaming on Netflix, and is available in various formats on Amazon. Recommended.
Dumb-ass American desanctifying Giordano Bruno
In case you’all were wondering what Giordano Bruno looks like:
Will reposting this get us burned at the stake?
Bodies hanging from bridge in Mexico are warning to social media users:
This is going to happen to all of those posting funny things on the Internet,” one sign said. “You better (expletive) pay attention. I’m about to get you.”
This study of Richard M. Nixon’s television-centered campaign remains a tour de force of reporting and analysis, as relevant today as when it first appeared
In a review of Joe McGinnis’s new book on Sarah Palin, we get this context for his first book of political reportage, The Selling of the President:
Remembering those days, Mr. McGinniss described an incident at a campaign stop when Kennedy’s motorcade came through. “I stood out there in the crowd, and he was in the open car waving to thousands and thousands of hysterical people. And he spotted me. I was tall, standing close. He said ‘Come on up here.’ ”
A Secret Service man pulled Mr. McGinniss into the car alongside Kennedy, who said, “I just want you to see what this is like from my side.”
“Then,” Mr. McGinniss remembers, “he made this wry comment. ‘They keep telling me talk about the issues. You think these people care about the issues?’ They were there because he had a star quality, and that was back in 1968.”
Less than two months later, Kennedy was assassinated. Mr. McGinniss flew to Los Angeles to report on his death, in the company of older journalists, like Murray Kempton, whom he idolized.
When he got back East, Mr. McGinniss learned that admen were already planning to market the presidential nominees “much the way they had for Avis, Volkswagen and Heinz ketchup.” The contrast with the tragic scene in Los Angeles was shocking to him.
This was the mood in which the brilliant “Selling of the President” was written. Its “New Journalism” cool rides on a young writer’s wounded idealism.
from the spam
Who’s the Champ? I’m the Champ!
headline of the day
Netflix Doesn’t Own the Qwikster Twitter Feed. This Foulmouthed Pothead Does.
quote out of context
Giordano Bruno declared the world infinite and was burned at the stake.
what I said
Or, what I planned to say when I officiated my little sister’s wedding on Saturday. There was a technical issue (broken Kindle which contained these words) and the inevitable mispoken phrase, but more or less, here it is:
Marwage…
Now, with my obligatory Princess Bride reference out of the way…
Welcome to the Tour de Wilson.
Cait and Brad have invited you all here today to witness their official union as a married couple and, because I’m an expert in both marriage and cycling, I’ve been asked, and granted the power to officiate the ceremony. On their behalf, I apologize.
One day, about 10 years ago, I needed someone’s help moving furniture for my mom. I don’t really remember much of the story, but I vaguely remember driving to Alameda from Sacramento with a lifeguard I worked with at Sac State.
One epilepsy patient moved a ball across a computer screen simply by imagining either an “ooh” sound or an “aah” sound. It marked one more step toward telepathy with machines.
For years, computers have been creeping ever nearer to our neurons. Thousands of people have become cyborgs, of a sort, for medical reasons: cochlear implants augment hearing and deep-brain stimulators treat Parkinson’s. But within the next decade, we are likely to see a new kind of implant, designed for healthy people who want to merge with machines. With several competing technologies in development, scientists squabble over which device works best; no one wants theirs to end up looking like the Betamax of brain wear. Schalk is a champion of the ECoG implant because, unlike other devices, it does not pierce brain tissue; instead it can ride on top of the brain-blood barrier, sensing the activity of populations of neurons and passing their chatter to the outside world, like a radio signal. Schalk says this is the brain implant most likely to evolve into a consumer product that could send signals to a prosthetic hand, an iPhone, a computer or a car.
“The burr hole in the skull will be small,” Schalk told me enthusiastically, as if urging me to get one of the plugs. The first dedicated trials in human beings, he says, are only a few years away.
(via @tylercowen)
Repulsel! Let down your hair!
More video shorts from Cyanide & Happiness.
exotic hand gestures from around the globe
Meaning: “You are a dickhead”
Used in: United KingdomBring the fingers and thumb together as if holding a phallus near the forehead.
From Romana Lefevre’s Rude Hand Gestures of the World, with photographs by Daniel Castro, The Atlantic put together a handy clutch of rude gestures to carry with you wherever you go.
(thanks, Casey)
the serial comma, a visual explanation
The utility of the serial comma has always made sense to me, the comments against it don’t.
(thanks, Kelsey)
from the comments
‘Penissy’ is my Morrissey cover band.
photo out of context
tweet of the day
dear clusterflock
Instapaper vs. Readabilty.
The bottom line is that memory is essential to constructing scenarios for ourselves in the future
A hodgepodge of the latest from the land of neuroscience:
As long as a hand-clapper is less than 30 meters away, you hear and see the clap happen together. But beyond this distance, the sound arrives more than 80 milliseconds later than the light, and the brain no longer matches sight and sound. What is weird is that the transition is abrupt: by taking a single step away from you, the hand-clapper goes from in sync to out of sync. Similarly, as long as a TV or film soundtrack is synchronized within 80 milliseconds, you won’t notice any lag, but if the delay gets any longer, the two abruptly and maddeningly become disjointed. Events that take place faster than 80 milliseconds fly under the radar of consciousness. A batter swings at a ball before being aware that the pitcher has even throw it.
(via the browser)
headline of the day, III
World’s Largest Sperm Bank Says They Don’t Want Your Ginger Sperm
