nswd

I’m waitin’ for the time when I can get to Arizona, cause my money’s spent on the goddamn rent

gm.png

Taxicab geometry, considered by Hermann Minkowski in the 19th century, is a form of geometry in which the usual metric of Euclidean geometry is replaced by a new metric in which the distance between two points is the sum of the (absolute) differences of their coordinates.

The taxicab metric is also known as Manhattan distance, or Manhattan length, with corresponding variations in the name of the geometry. The latter names allude to the grid layout of most streets on the island of Manhattan, which causes the shortest path a car could take between two points in the city to have length equal to the points’ distance in taxicab geometry.

{ Wikipedia | Continue reading }

And dance around your bones

cs1.jpg

Once again, I hear the siren song of Toxoplasma, the parasite that dwells in the brains of 50 million Americans.

Toxoplasma gondii is an extraordinary creature. (…) This single-celled organism has a life cycle that takes it from cats to other mammals and birds and back to cats again. Studies have shown that the parasite can alter the behavior of rats, robbing them of their normal fear of cats–and presumably making it easier for the parasites to get into their next host.

Toxoplasma is astonishingly successful, able to live in thousands of species, including us. Billions of people are infected with Toxoplasma, which they pick up from the soil or from contaminated meat or water. In most people it remains dormant, but even in this quiet state it may also have affect human behavior. Some scientists have linked Toxoplasma to schizophrenia, while others have found personality differences between people with Toxoplasma and those who are Toxo-free. It’s possible that it uses its prey-altering strategy on our brains, too.

All well and good. But now Toxplasma is going big time. Today the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London is publishing a paper called, “Can the common brain parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, influence human culture?”
The paper’s answer? Quite possibly yes.

{ Carl Zimmer/ScienceBlogs | Continue reading | Thanks Teaflax! }

Mister anywhere you point this thing

ts.jpg

Hotel toilet-paper folding is a common practice performed by hotels worldwide as a way of assuring guests that the bathroom has been cleaned, and sometimes, with more elaborate foldings, to impress or delight guests with the management’s creativity and attention to detail.

The common fold normally involves creating an inverted triangle or V shape out of the first sheet or square on a toilet paper roll. Commonly, the two corners of the final sheet are tucked behind the paper symmetrically, forming a point at the end of the roll. More elaborate folding results in shapes like fans, sailboats, and even flowers.

An automated toilet paper folding machine called “Meruboa” was invented in Japan. With the push of a lever, the device folds the first sheet of toilet paper into a triangle.

{ Wikipedia | Continue reading | Toilet Paper Origami }

So ignore all the codes of the day, let your juvenile influences sway

dz.jpg

It’s five years today since the world’s most famous computer game, World of Warcraft, began. And I’m both proud and slightly embarrassed to say that I’ve been there since the beginning. (…)

I believe that World of Warcraft matters. Exactly how and why it matters, though, can be hard to get at from the outside; much of what reaches the mainstream media is a muddle of scandals, statistics and pseudo-scientific scraps. So I’d like to take a few moments to recall just what it was like to play this game for the first time five years ago, in the company of an old friend who had managed to wheedle both of our ways onto the game’s American servers in time for launch—and why, five years on, the character I created then is still soldiering on through the northern reaches of the world’s most famous unreal destination.

What struck us, first of all, was just how much it felt like a world: huge, organic, inviting exploration. There were lakes, mountains, rivers, forests, cliffs, towns, cities, and lots of things to squash, splatter, maim and generally exterminate for the sake of various rewards. What struck us shortly after this was that, although there was a game here to be played, there was also an awful lot more to it than simply playing and trying to win. My friend had chosen to play a dwarf warrior as his first character but, unlike any other game we’d encountered before, there was no sense in which he was that character. As far as World of Warcraft was concerned, he was himself, and just happened to be strolling around a vast cartoon world in the guise of an aggressive dwarf. And that was much more interesting, because it meant that—for the first time any of us had known—you could actually be yourself while playing. In fact, you could be all sorts of things that your self didn’t normally manage.

{ Prospect | Continue reading }

image { Denis Zilber }

How can they see the love in our eyes, and still they don’t believe us

mh.jpg

The burning question is why same-sex behaviour would evolve at all when it runs counter to evolutionary principles. But does it? In fact there are many good reasons for same-sex sexual behaviour. What’s more, Zuk and Bailey suggest that in a species where it is common, it is an important driving force in evolution.

{ NewScientist | Continue reading }

I do not undertand why historians and academics, including many gay ones, refuse to believe that homosexuality has been pretty much the same since the beginning of human history.

{ Gay & Lesbian Review Worldwide | Continue reading }

related { Beirut’s gay community }

photo { Mark Heithoff }

Uniformed Policeman: [describing the Batmobile] He is in a vehicle!

bm.jpg

{ via WFMU Ichiban }

Our house, in the middle of our street

d.jpg

d11.jpg

d21.jpg

{ Don Shank, The Fredricksen House | more }

‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’ –Shakespeare

ip.jpg

People have been bringing plants into residential and other indoor settings for centuries, but little is known about their psychological effects. In the present article, we critically review the experimental literature on the psychological benefits of indoor plants.

We focus on benefits gained through passive interactions with indoor plants rather than on the effects of guided interactions with plants in horticultural therapy or the indirect effect of indoor plants as air purifiers or humidifiers. The reviewed experiments addressed a variety of outcomes, including emotional states, pain perception, creativity, task-performance, and indices of autonomic arousal. Some findings recur, such as enhanced pain management with plants present, but in general the results appear to be quite mixed. Sources of this heterogeneity include diversity in experimental manipulations, settings, samples, exposure durations, and measures. After addressing some overarching theoretical issues, we close with recommendations for further research with regard to experimental design, measurement, analysis, and reporting.

{ The psychological benefits of indoor plants: A critical review of the experimental literature | ScienceDirect }

I was Time’s 2006 Person of the Year. It’s on my resume.

b.jpg

{ Bernanke is TIME’s 2009 Person of the Year | Comments }

No one wins. One side just loses more slowly.

d1.jpg

d2.jpg

{ George Loannaidis | Double Pendulum Experiment }

‘Advertising is 85% confusion and 15% commission.’ —Fred Allen

m21.jpg

m.jpg

{ Mont-Sat, Poland. Your Regional Service Antenna. Sales, service and installation of antennas TV-SAT (houses, hotels, guest houses). | Mont-Sat }

Salami fingaz

sf11.jpg

Salami battle in supermarket leaves Germans in hospital

Two Germans needed hospital treatment after they fought a pitched battle in a supermarket with salamis used as clubs and a chunk of Parmesan cheese brandished like a dagger. (…)

He clubbed the younger man with a salami as his mother tried to fend him off with a sharp 4lbs piece of Parmesan.

The pensioner then pushed the woman down on to a glass countertop on which she cracked her head.

{ Telegraph | Continue reading }

photo { Wim Delvoye’s salami floors }

Every day, the same, again

e4.jpg98-year-old woman accused of killing 100-year-old room-mate after complaining of too many visitors. Police in Dartmouth initially believed the victim had committed suicide.

Man reports theft of Ecstasy pill collection.

4-year-old boy was found roaming his neighborhood in the night, drinking beer and wearing a little girl’s dress.

40-year-old decided to castrate himself to avoid cheating on his wife who refused to have sex with him.

A French court has split the jackpot from a casino slot machine between the woman who put in the money and the man who pulled the lever, ending months of argument between the two.

Chinese man gets remote control stuck in bottom after drunk prank. While being examined, the tipsy student turned over in bed, and inadvertently changed channel on the ward’s telly.


Giant penis sparks bizarre media war in Germany.

Accenture ends 6-year relationship with Tiger Woods; says no longer the ‘right representative’.

Abu Dhabi gives Dubai $10 billion for use on debt. [previously]

Drug money saved banks in global crisis?

In doing research for my latest book, I was delighted to bump into an equation that predicted the value of wines from Bordeaux without relying on anyone from the swirl, sip, and swish crowd. [PDF]

How to keep the planet’s temperature from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit).

It may seem odd to add scent to products like sewing thread, automobile tires, and tennis balls, as some companies have done. But a new study says scent helps consumers remember product information.

New quantum theory topples Einstein’s spacetime.

Controversial signs of mass cannibalism 7,000 years ago.

re.jpgAncient DNA retrieved from extinct horse species from around the world has challenged one of the textbook examples of evolution - the fossil record of the horse family Equidae over the past 55 million years.

Panda genome unveiled. DNA clues suggest little inbreeding, surprise on the bamboo diet.

Octopus observed using tools.

Treatment for sleep apnea.

New study shows that women rate men’s photos as more attractive when they’re placed near the top of the screen. By contrast, men rate women’s photos as more attractive when they’re located near the bottom of the screen.

Postpartum depression strikes fathers, too.

A revolution in how people access and use pornography has taken the therapy community by surprise. Now some experts believe that an epidemic of porn use is society’s newest and most challenging mental health problem.

Women are more likely to be chatting it up on Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites you’ve probably never heard of, like “Bebo.”

Malicious programs are rampaging through Web sites like Facebook and Twitter, spreading themselves by taking over people’s accounts and sending out messages to all of their friends and followers.

Scientists follow earthquakes on Twitter.

Google Analytics is illegal, say German government officials.

How to think like Bill Gates. Related: Stuff I’ve learned at Microsoft.

VC predictions for cell phones in 2010.

10 brands that will disappear in 2010.

Chess boxing is a hybrid sport which combines the sport of boxing with games of chess in alternating rounds.

NYC’s toniest neighborhood also its most polluted.

Finding a parking spot with a broken meter may be the New York equivalent of hitting the jackpot — but, thanks to a new iPhone application, everyone can now be a winner.

Reasons to love NY. [15. Because girls have more fun.]

The world’s fastest animal (the peregrine falcon) takes New York.

275 magazines launched in 2009. Related: After 55 years in publication, I.D. Magazine, America’s foremost design publication, has folded.

The rise of poetry in advertising.

e3.jpgWhy Wittgenstein rejected theories.

Flipism is an imaginary philosophy, letting all decisions be made by flipping a coin.

On the Origin of Stories attempts an evolutionary explanation of the appearance of art—and, more specifically, of the utility of fiction.

The art market has suffered from the recession, but globalisation should help it recover.

Larry Sultan dies at 63.

Secrets of a food photographer.

On properly heating your pan.

Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2009.

Hello from Parrot Jungle.

New Obama.

Soldiers of the U.S. Army 1st Battalion take defensive positions at fire base Restrepo after receiving fire from Taliban positions in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley. [PIC]

Chocolate-covered bacon on a stick.

Rabbit by street artist Roa.

Successful jump off building.

Santa intimate. [NSFW]

Loop.

‘Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all.’ –Kierkegaard

pt.jpg

I had been mistaken in thinking that I could see clearly into my own heart. But this knowledge which had not been given me by the finest mental perceptions had now been brought to me, hard, glittering, strange, like a crystallised salt, by the abrupt reaction of grief.

Je m’étais trompé en croyant voir clair dans mon cœur. Mais cette connaissance que ne m’avaient pas donnée les plus fines perceptions de l’esprit venait de m’être apportée, dure, éclatante, étrange, comme un sel cristallisé par la brusque réaction de la douleur.

{ Marcel Proust, Albertine Disparue, 1925 | Continue reading | Poursuivez la lecture | Wikipedia }

‘Words, words, words.’ –Shakespeare

bg.jpg

I would estimate that I spend a good two hours per day reading, writing and commenting on internet content, with absolutely no tangible, material benefit to my life at all.

{ 2Blowhards | Continue reading }

…Beryl Schlossman’s suggestion that in Joyce’s works language is the “hero” and is “at once center and decentering.”

{ Male and Female Creativity in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake | PDF }

It is language which speaks, not the author.

{ Stéphane Mallarmé quoted by Roland Barthes }

Five-O said, Freeze! and I got numb

an.jpg

Show one image exclusively to one eye and a different image exclusively to the other eye and rather than experiencing a merging of the images, an observer’s percept will flit backwards and forwards randomly and endlessly between the two. This “binocular rivalry”, as it’s known, has been of particular interest to psychologists because it shows how the same incoming sensory information can give rise to two very different conscious experiences.

Now, in a research first, psychologists have shown that a similar process occurs with our sense of smell. If one odour is presented to one nostril and another odour is presented to the other nostril, a person will experience “binaral rivalry” - sensing one smell and then the other, backwards and forwards, rather than a blending of the two.

{ BPS | Continue reading }

From Proust’s Madeleines to the overbearing food critic in the movie Ratatouille who’s transported back to his childhood at the aroma of stew, artists have long been aware that some odors can spontaneously evoke strong memories. Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science have now revealed the scientific basis of this connection. (…)

The key might not necessarily lie in childhood, but rather in the first time a smell is encountered in the context of a particular object or event. In other words, the initial association of a smell with an experience will somehow leave a unique and lasting impression in the brain.

{ Weizmann Institute of Science | Continue reading }

‘But tell me, my brethren, what the child can do, which even the lion could not do? Why hath the preying lion still to become a child? Innocence is the child, and forgetfulness, a new beginning, a game, a self-rolling wheel, a first movement, a holy Yea.’ –Nietzsche

up.jpg

Like most interesting words, “maturity” is hard to define.  The most literal definition is just “how much you act like an adult.”  But since adult behavior varies widely, and we often call some adults “immature,” that’s not very helpful.  As far as I can tell, the most important components of maturity are:

1. Orientation toward work rather than play.

2. Taking a long-run view rather than acting impulsively or spontaneously.

3. Being serious rather than silly.

4. Identifying with - and taking the side of - older people.

A colleague disputed a more primitive version of #3.  In his view, what people do in their free time can’t affect their “maturity.”  I say he’s wrong.  I’m quite open to the view that maturity is over-rated, but in ordinary usage there is definitely such a thing as “immature humor.”  The Three Stooges is immature, and if you enjoy it, so are you. 

So who’s mature, and who’s not?  The most obvious generalization is that maturity increases with age.  By my criteria, it’s not a necessary truth, but nonetheless hard to deny.  Further conjectures:

Higher-IQ people probably tend to be a little more mature, but primarily because they score higher on #2.

{ EconLog | Continue reading }

How did he not find the baggy, with his hand in my shoe?

ct.jpg

I believe there is a lot of fraud in high tech startups, 95 percent of which fail.  With only a five percent chance of surviving, startups face a gauntlet of risks as described in this quote from uber-VC John Doerr in my show Nerds 2.01: A Brief History of the Internet:

“There are four categories of risk to look for in every project:

1) “People risk: How the team will work together.  Because inevitably one of the founders does not work out and drops out.”

2) “Market risk: This is an incredibly expensive risk to remove.  It is about whether the dogs will eat the dog food.  Is there a market for this product? You do not want to be wrong about market risk.”

3) “Technical risk: This risk we are quite willing to take on.  Whether or not we can make a pen computer that works, be the first to commercialize a web browser, or split the atom if you will.  That technical risk is one we are comfortable trying to eliminate or take on.”

4) “Financial risk: If you have all of the preceding three risks right (people, market, and technical), can you then get the capital that you need to grow the business? Typically you can. There is plenty of capital to finance rapidly growing new technologies that are addressing large markets.”

Of course Doerr completely forgot to include fraud risk — that investors would simply have their money stolen.

Tech fraud happens all the time and those who are fooled include the most sophisticated investors (big shot VCs are not at all immune). (…)

Several years ago I lost what was for me a substantial amount of money investing in a financial patent startup.  It looked great on paper, the only problem being that the paper was forged, simply made up.  Nothing was as it seemed.  The company’s books literally didn’t exist. So I sued, spending a lot more money, only to have the founders declare bankruptcy and walk away.

{ Robert Cringely | Continue reading }

This country is safe again, Superman, thanks to you

5737.jpg

{ Ivo Mayr | more }

And the chalk squeaked, the floorboards creaked

jj1.jpg

Percentage of Americans who believe in angels: 55

Percentage of Americans who believe in evolution: 39

Percentage of Americans who believe in anthropogenic global warming: 36

Percentage of Americans who believe in ghosts: 34

Percentage of Americans who believe in UFOs: 34

{ Foreign Policy | Continue reading }

artwork { James Jean }



kerrrocket.svg