{ Anna Witt }

{ How Chinese owners turn their pets into exotic wildlife in new craze | more }

{ Drugmoneyart | watch the video }

{ Yugop.com }

unrelated:

{ A Lamborghini BLEW UP on Rodney Street, which serves as the off-ramp for the BQE’s Metropolitan Avenue exit. | New York Shitty | via Copyranter }

unrelated { unrelated: For the last two years of his life, after an attempted suicide, Schumann was confined to a mental institution at his own request. }

Breaking Up is Hard to Do, Unless Everyone Else is Doing it Too: Social Network Effects on Divorce in a Longitudinal Sample Followed for 32 Years

Divorce is the dissolution of a social tie, but it is also possible that attitudes about divorce flow across social ties. To explore how social networks influence divorce and vice versa, we utilize a longitudinal data set from the long-running Framingham Heart Study. We find that divorce can spread between friends, siblings, and coworkers, and there are clusters of divorcees that extend two degrees of separation in the network. We also find that popular people are less likely to get divorced, divorcees have denser social networks, and they are much more likely to remarry other divorcees. Interestingly, we do not find that the presence of children influences the likelihood of divorce, but we do find that each child reduces the susceptibility to being influenced by peers who get divorced. Overall, the results suggest that attending to the health of one’s friends’ marriages serves to support and enhance the durability of one’s own relationship, and that, from a policy perspective, divorce should be understood as a collective phenomenon that extends far beyond those directly affected.

{ Social Science Research Network | via The Situationist }

photo { Bill Owens }

Errors in the way physicists estimate the effects of dark matter and dark energy on the leftover heat from the Big Bang has thrown their existence into doubt, say British scientists.

Physicists’ general model of the universe includes two ‘dark’ concepts.

Dark energy is a force that explains the way that galaxies accelerate away from each other, while dark matter was postulated to explain the observations that galaxies have more mass than can be accounted for by stars and gas.

Evidence for the ‘dark side’ comes primarily from studies of the Cosmic Background Radiation (CMB), the leftover ‘glow’ from the Big Bang, which has been analysed in detail by the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), a NASA satellite telescope launched in 2001 that provided the first full-sky map of the CMB.

Now, some scientists say errors in the WMAP data may be larger than expected.

This would mean that there is no need to include dark matter and dark energy in models of the cosmos.

{ Cosmos | Continue reading }

If you’re having trouble getting a date, French researchers suggest that picking the right soundtrack could improve the odds. Women were more prepared to give their number to an ‘average’ young man after listening to romantic background music, according to research that appears today in the journal Psychology of Music, published by SAGE.

There’s plenty of research indicating that the media affects our behaviour. Violent video games or music with aggressive lyrics increase the likelihood of aggressive behaviour, thoughts and feelings – but do romantic songs have any effect? This question prompted researchers Nicolas Guéguen and Céline Jacob from the Université de Bretagne-Sud along with Lubomir Lamy from Université de Paris-Sud to test the power of romantic lyrics on 18-20 year old single females. And it turns out that at least one romantic love song did make a difference.

{ EurekAlert | Continue reading }

Psychologists have discovered that self-control is an exhaustible resource. And I don’t mean self-control only in the sense of turning down cookies or alcohol, I mean a broader sense of self-supervision—any time you’re paying close attention to your actions, like when you’re having a tough conversation or trying to stay focused on a paper you’re writing. This helps to explain why, after a long hard day at the office, we’re more likely to snap at our spouses or have one drink too many—we’ve depleted our self-control.

And here’s why this matters for change: In almost all change situations, you’re substituting new, unfamiliar behaviors for old, comfortable ones, and that burns self-control. Let’s say I present a new morning routine to you that specifies how you’ll shower and brush your teeth. You’ll understand it and you might even agree with my process. But to pull it off, you’ll have to supervise yourself very carefully. Every fiber of your being will want to go back to the old way of doing things. Inevitably, you’ll slip. And if I were uncharitable, I’d see you going back to the old way and I’d say, You’re so lazy. Why can’t you just change?

This brings us back to the point I promised I’d make: That what looks like laziness is often exhaustion. Change wears people out—even well-intentioned people will simply run out of fuel.

{ Fast Company | Continue reading }

the list of demandz, in every particular order:
3 kegz: creamsoda, rootbeer, guiness; 1 oz (at least) of weed; local organic free trade coconut ice cream; liberation of all animals; hella pizza; all that normal jazz (social amnesty, etc); all black and gold everything; gay soccer; black kill city, junkie-cut 28-waist jeans (x12); moet moat; good porn; deep fryer; grass-fed steaks (not vegan); 3x silver booty shorts; all lam’e everything; niki minaj; equestrian boots (x12); mad bluntz; newports and tins of bali shag x6; mollie and e; grey goose; blow jobz (giving/receiving); scented markers; ANDY!!!!!; abolition of recycling; more garbagio; sum floppy titz; blood oranges; the head of john the baptist on a platter; johnny walker black lube; more la croix plus gin; airstream treehouses (x12—a village); the abolition of consensus; up the kittens; HATE; trampolines; brass monkeys; the dark lord; ingredients for bloody mary’s; pink himalayan sea salt (absolutely NO sand); vegan ball pit; top shelf open bar; absolutely fabulous playing behind porn; dead koala (unfrozen); one half of a panda (vegan); bloodbaths; the total annihilation of youtubian society;
lick my clit for fucking once.
xxxo,
the ignorant party

{ Bash Back | Continue reading }

{ Imp Kerr & Associates, NYC }

A recent study of an ancient language provides new insights into the nature of linguistic evolution. (…)

Dr. Kiparsky’s research focuses on the reasons why languages change over time, and the mechanisms by which this change occurs. Linguistic change differs from biological evolution and socio-cultural change because of the way language is organized and learned. Languages are passed on by example, but each is governed by a coherent set of rules that conform to a common set of organizing principles. Linguistic change is typically initiated by children as they make “intelligent” errors in seeking the simplest way of navigating the languages they are learning. By studying linguistic change, we gain new insights into how language is organized and how children learn language.

{ EurekAlert | Continue reading }

How to Prevent Language Extinction

The 7 billion inhabitants of Earth currently speak about 6000 different languages. That may seem a healthy multitude but it turns out that just five of these languages dominate. More than half the population speak English, Russian, Mandarin, Hindi and Spanish. These together with the next hundred most popular languages account for 95 per cent of speakers. A mere 5 per cent of the global population speak the rest and two thirds of these lingos are in danger of extinction.

That’s a perilous state of affairs. With the death of a language, the planet loses an irreplaceable cultural phenomenon. The fear is that the big five may crush all before them, pushing weaker languages into oblivion and leaving a cultural desert in their wake.

That fear has been exacerbated by mathematical models describing how one language can dominate another and showing how easily extinctions happen.

Today, however, there is better news. The relentless march of dominant languages may not be as inevitable as these early models seemed to show.

{ The Physics arXiv Blog | Continue reading }

photo { Emma Hardy }

The Creativity Elixir: Is Genius On-Demand Possible?

After much experimentation, I figured out my personal recipe for creativity on-demand: circadian scheduling, altered states, and white noise. Huh? It’s actually simple…

1. Time it: Determine your most prolific creative period during a normal 24-hour period. It took me a long time to accept 1-5am as my best hours, which was the only timing that provided consistent progress. I also distinguish between idea generation and idea “creation” (combination into a meaningful whole). 1-3pm was spent brainstorming fragmented concepts and anecdotes, as well as interviewing and note taking. I would circle the best ideas and then put them in order at 1am for an attempt at synthesis.

I don’t believe that it is possible to do more than 4 hours of good creative work per waking cycle. This can be extended only slightly by caffeine power naps (down a cup of espresso and then take a 20-minute nap) or “ultra-naps” that are multiples of the 90-minute ultradian cycle (I prefer 90 minutes or 3 hours).

2. Biochemically Fine-Tune. I found by accident that my best sessions all followed a specific ratio: 3 cups of yerba mate tea for each glass of wine consumed. 3:1. I also like adding a little theobromine with a few E. Guittard 72% cacao chocolate cooking chips every 20 minutes or so.

{ Tim Ferris | Continue reading }

{ Jonnie Craig }

{ Four hexagonal robots, each with a propeller at its center, hook up using magnets to create one stable flying machine. }

{ The Social Art Collective is proud to present Heroin Stamp Project, an exhibition focusing on the branding of heroin in New York City. At once beautiful and unsettling, the images in the exhibit illustrate a complex narrative around public health and preventable consequences of injection drug use. | White Box, 329 Broome Street, NYC | June 23rd - June 29th, 2010 | Thanks Ser Gee! }

A 36-year-old woman who got stuck in a garbage chute in a building in Brooklyn was rescued by dozens of firefighters and other responders after falling about 15 feet down the chute.

Gamblers seeking to beat the bookies are smoking dried vulture brains, believing it will give them the power to predict match results.

Stolen truck recovered after 38 years.

What was supposed to be a honeymoon and week of vacation has turned into a nightmare for a couple who work at Erlanger Medical Center. Eric Wright was arrested by a Chattanooga Police officer when he rushed his wife Aline to the emergency room at Erlanger with stroke symptoms.

Man, whose stepson accidentally shot himself through the head while posing for a photo, is starting a five-year jail sentence.

I spent my life collecting 32,000 teabags.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission has spent most of the last two years blind to potential offenders carting around millions of riders in yellow cabs, livery cars and limousines, The Post has learned.

BP — the company accepting responsiblity for the current environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico began as Imperial Oil, became Anglo-Persian Oil with its discovery of vast reserves in present-day Iran, then Anglo-Iranian, then British Petroleum, and now just BP. Related: Accidents happen to the best of companies.  It is how those companies respond to big industrial accidents that shows the quality of an organization.

Wall Street’s lowest-rated stocks have turned into this year’s best performers.

Ponzi king Bernard Madoff is telling fellow jailbirds that he secretly funneled $9 billion in swiped funds to three people before he was nabbed, an inmate told The Post.

A Decade of Bank Failures.

Did nature clean up most of the Exxon Valdez oil spill?

Two researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela have studied the relationship between teenagers’ goals and antisocial behavior. The results show that the principal goal of young people is to finish their studies and leave home.

New study finds memory improved by vocalising or sub-vocalising words.

What obstacles get in the way of self managing chronic pain?

Gender Gaps in Depression Across Europe…

The surprising conclusion of a study of contacts between Brazilian prostitutes and their clients is that the network is unlikely to support the spread of HIV.

Female Viagra Doesn’t Improve Sexual Desire.

Life-extending Drug May Also Combat Obesity.

The rise of ‘ambient scenting’ - a type of smell-based marketing used in High Street stores to alter the buying behaviour of shoppers

Within two weeks, the French newspaper Le Monde will run out of cash.

In spite of all the answers the internet has given us, its full potential to transform our lives remains the great unknown. Here are the nine key steps to understanding the most powerful tool of our age – and where it’s taking us.

Amazon Drops Kindle Price to $189 to Compete With Nook and iPad.

Brooklyn Museum opens ‘Andy Warhol: The Last Decade’.

US artist Matthew Barney disturbs and dazzles in Basel.

More than 400 works from the corporate contemporary art collection once displayed at Lehman Brothers will be auctioned to help pay creditors of the failed investment bank..

Different berries, similar cancer-fighting effects.

Strict vegans should feel comfortable eating oysters. Since oysters don’t have a central nervous system, they’re unlikely to experience pain in a way resembling ours.

Top 10 Worst Fart-Producing Foods.

The amazing history of chewing gum.

A ludicrously botched bank robbery leads to the question, Can you be too incompetent to understand just how incompetent you are? The Anosognosic’s Dilemma: Something’s Wrong but You’ll Never Know What It Is.

How to write a “Malcolm Gladwell Bestseller.”

Styles of house music.

How it feel to wake up and be the shit and the urine?

People who think riding their bicycle is saving the world and vocalists dressed in vintage-store garbage need to all move to an island somewhere where they can worship each other as much as they want. Oh wait…

{ Why Summer Begins Monday | Artwork: Richard Prince, Untitled (Sunset), 1981 }