December 28, 2011
Fat: The Gift that Keeps On Giving
The Fat Trap (NYT pop review): Overweight individuals in Western nations (and, increasingly, beyond) face interpersonal and institutional stigma for their bodies*. Oftentimes, these stigmas are predicated on the belief that being overweight is a moral failure, that being overweight is usually a result of laziness, decadence, and/or characterlogical poor impulse control. However, an emerging consensus among obesity researchers points toward strong, common physiological and individual genetic factors as causative for heightened BMIs in the modern world and the general failure of dieting to produce BMI outcomes. A recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine (paywalled) adds to this body of evidence, suggesting that chemical messengers held to contribute to altered "efficient" metabolism and increased hunger in the wake of low-calorie dieting are (on average) significantly elevated up to a full year (if not longer) following a substantial drop in weight from dieting. [more inside]
The gorilla was John
"Okay. The reason I’m bringing all this up again is because Iggy Pop was once attacked by a gorilla during a live performance. But the gorilla turned out to be Elton John.... The Creem photograph documenting the event is hilarious, showing James Williamson transfixing the uppity ape with a malevolent glare that signals, he says, his intent to 'take him out.'" [more inside]
Why this Kolaveri Di, NZ-style
Kiwi fans of the hit Tanglish song 'Why This Kolaveri Di?' surprise shoppers in Auckland's main square. (Previously).
NOW IT IS BEGINNING OF A FANTASTIC STORY
Here are fan-translated Game Center CX (previously) Episodes on YouTube:
#1: Atlantis No Nazo, #2: Challenger, #3: Ghosts 'N Goblins, #4: Konami Wai Wai World, #5: Metroid, #6: Solomon's Key, #7 & #8: Prince of Persia: Part 1 - Part 2, #9: Mega Man II, #10: Super Mario 3. Much more after the break.... [more inside]
Obama-Clinton 2012
Robert Reich writes today: My political prediction for 2012 (based on absolutely no inside information): Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden swap places. Biden becomes Secretary of State -- a position he's apparently coveted for years. And Hillary Clinton, Vice President [more inside]
2061
On November 22, 2011, TEDxBrussels held an all day event whose theme was: "A Day in the Deep Future." Speakers were asked to try and contemplate what life will be like for mankind in 50 years. Overview. [more inside]
Revolution + Bonuses
Egyptian army officer's diary of military life in a revolution -- It's ridiculous; at the height of the unrest reserve officer salaries doubled and everyone was getting huge bonuses all the time [...] Most full-time officers didn't really care what was happening politically on the streets, they were just happy with the extra money. Occasionally though you'd hear guilty jokes about how we were the only people who were benefiting from the revolution and the Egyptian people had been screwed over.
Works on low-talkers too!
Having confronted the problem of how to walk past someone without running into them, it's time MetaFilter dealt with another pressing social issue: How to deal with slow walkers (SLYT).
Some psychotherapy modalities
Here are some evidence-based and research based psychotherapy modalities you may or may not have heard of, a few in the words of their creators: David Burns and CBT and T.E.A.M. Therapy [pdf], Steven Hayes and ACT (also), Marsha Linehan and DBT (also [pdf] and also [pdf]), Joseph Weiss and Control Mastery Theory (also), Eugene Gendlin and Focusing-Oriented Psychotherapy (also).
The best photoshopping deals are always found after the holidays
Luxury Tax
London by the Numbers
Infographics that give a little insight into the history of public transport(ation) in the UK.
Gumm's Last Tape
Even people who would normally never care about something Judy Garland-related marvel at the incredible pathos and dark insanity of these tapes, which come off like Garland performing in a one-woman show written by Samuel Beckett.
"Without your space helmet, Dave, you're going to find that rather difficult."
Deceivers yet true
“Cathy Don’t Go (To the Supermarket Today)”
Catchy, competent New Wave pop from an alternate universe much like a Jack Chick tract's, only far more unsettling for the children who were actually raised in it. (MLYT) [more inside]
Catchy, competent New Wave pop from an alternate universe much like a Jack Chick tract's, only far more unsettling for the children who were actually raised in it. (MLYT) [more inside]
Livin' the Life (slyt)
Marconi wasn't even using WEP
Edwardian Era Grey Hatting. How a magician and part time inventor used griefing to expose security flaws in Marconi's radio transmission system, in 1903. [more inside]
Something bad is probably going to happen, I'm just not sure to whom...
Soul Time!
Daptone Records, the Brooklyn soul revival label, is 10 years old. Daptone doesn't only make soul songs with themes and arrangements in the style of soul music but, more importantly, they make records that aesthetically sound like the era. [more inside]
Redefining "big iron"
The world's first general-purpose, programmable computer was Charles Babbage's mechanical Analytical Engine, which was a formidable accomplishment even if the cost of its construction was prohibitive. While Babbage focused on engineering challenges, mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first program for the Analytical Engine, and provided some important insights into the power of a programmable computer. Unfortunately, Babbage never completed an Analytical Engine.
Mike James has written an interesting piece on his blog speculating about how our world would be different a working Analytical Engine had been constructed. This topic also was covered in William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's 1990 novel, "The Difference Engine", a seminal work in the steampunk genre. It's interesting to think about how the world would be different had engineers and scientists had access to fast, high-speed computers a hundred years before the birth of UNIVAC. [more inside]
15 Million Merits
Are you encourages in your place of work by the use of gamification? Congratulations, comrade, you are treading in the footsteps of Soviet Russia!
How Google (and Rovio) Ported Angry Birds to HTML5
Joel Webber, a Google engineer who created the Google Web Toolkit and is working on the new Dart language, gave an incredibly detailed hour and a half talk about how Angry Birds was ported to HTML5 for the Chrome app store.
Can you sum up the Ramayana in an elevator pitch?
And so it moves from the memories of yesterday into the promise of tomorrow...
New York - The Wonder City - 1938 (SLOldTimeyYT)
You've done a man's job, sir.
Every death on every road in Great Britain 1999-2010
The BBC has put up a page presenting statistics dealing with deaths on British roads between 1999 and 2010. A slightly older page presenting mostly the same statistics (up to 2008) can be visited here; this earlier version was published in conjunction with several other articles, including one looking in-depth at a single crash and its aftermath in Stevenage in 2007.
Connecting with the Met
Throughout 2011, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has been producing Connections, a series of short audiovisual pieces in which various staff members talk about their favorite parts of the Met's vast holdings. The last of the 100 videos was posted today.
My Designated Hitter is a Fish
William Faulkner's ballot for the 2012 Baseball Hall of Fame election.
So Do My Heroes
The State cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime. Their right to liberty under the Due Process Clause gives them the full right to engage in their conduct without intervention of the government. - Justice Anthony KennedyJohn Geddes Lawrence, the defendant in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that declared sodomy laws unconstitutional across the country, died on Nov. 20, according to an obituary posted by R.S. Farmer Funeral Home in Silsbee, Texas. He was 68. [more inside]
Long Live Cheeta
News organizations from around the world are reporting on the death of Cheetah-Mike, the chimp who purportedly played Cheeta, the companion to Johnny Weissmuller’s Tarzan from the MGM and RKO film series of the 30s and 40s. If this is one of the original film Cheetas, it would make Cheetah-Mike, at 80, the longest-lived captive chimp on record. But there’s reason to doubt he’s both that old and was in the films with Weissmuller. First, because this is significantly longer than chimps usually live, and second because this has happened once before.
That's it.
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