The New York Times asked Gallup to come up with a statistical composite for the happiest person in America, based on the characteristics that most closely correlated with happiness in 2010. Men, for example, tend to be happier than women, older people are happier than middle-aged people, and so on.
Gallup’s answer: he’s a tall, Asian-American, observant Jew who is at least 65 and married, has children, lives in Hawaii, runs his own business and has a household income of more than $120,000 a year.
And here he is. (single link NYT-filter)
posted by ricochet biscuit
on Mar 9, 2011 -
77 comments
Forming (NSFW - cartoon nudity) is a webcomic by
Jesse Moynihan (NSFW) that tells the history of the evolution of man via the machinations of various alien entities whose familiar names (and unfamiliar stories) have been recorded in various religions throughout time.
[more inside]
posted by lyam
on Dec 16, 2010 -
24 comments
Once, there was a boy named Yves. He lived in the mountainous country of Switzerland, and he dreamed of flying. He loved the idea of being free to soar through the air so much that he became a
pilot. Later, he went on to fly
bigger planes. Perhaps he's even been your pilot.
But being a pilot was never quite enough. Yves still dreamed of soaring through the air, like a bird. And now, he does.
Meet Jetman.
Previously
posted by anigbrowl
on Nov 7, 2010 -
6 comments
When a person graduates high school as one of the top students, all sorts of grand predictions are made for the person's future. But how many of them end up doing the things predicted of them?
The Buffalo News
did a feature in 2007 on what the top students in the Buffalo area from 1987 ended up doing after high school. Some of them have done remarkable things, while others have made their mark in smaller ways, all are interesting in their own way.
posted by reenum
on Jul 4, 2010 -
57 comments
If you listen close enough you'll hear police sirens in the distance, water pipes humming, Chinese sweatshop workers listening to Chinese language radio programs and singing traditional Chinese sweatshop songs. And yes, even a barking dog somewhere in the distance. This is the sound that surrounds the sound of
Man Man, a cast of characters who rotate around one Ryan Kattner (a.k.a. Honus Honus), a grown fellow who was once
a military brat who missed the 1980s pop music of the United States.
Based in Philadelphia, but not part of the scene, the band mixes a lot of influences. Though (too) often likened to Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, and Captain Beefheart, Honus said "
It's beyond flattering... but I just don't possess the same kinds of things those guys do." Their sound has also been likened to circus music,
Viking vaudeville and manic Gypsy jazz, but
the band has always insisted that what it plays is pop music. "Pop music has something catchy about it, whether it's a vocal or a rhythm or a keyboard line, whatever it is," said Pow Pow (real name Christopher Powell). Whatever their sound, they gained enough notoriety to
tour with Modest Mouse (who they called "a gateway drug to better music"), and they're still at it. But enough with the words, time for some music videos!
10lb Moustache and
Rabbit Habits are the two official videos, though Engrish Bwudd has
inspired a
number of
fan-made vids, and even
a belly dancing number. (More words and music inside)
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Jun 18, 2010 -
23 comments
Feast Images of food—and the preparation of food—invariably have that effect on people. They unite viewers who might otherwise have nothing in common; they plug directly into the primal craving for transitory pleasure, the desire not just to admire and then consume inventively prepared food, but also to serve (and be served by) people who love us.
posted by device55
on Nov 25, 2009 -
4 comments
Folks, don't worry about energy crisis. Because Standard Oil, Shell, Gulf, Mobil, Texaco, Amoco, Esso, Sunoco, Exxon, Nixon, Standard Oil, General Motors, Chrysler, George Wallace, and Ford is not the backbone of America. The backbone of America is a mule and cotton. [
mp3] Bluesman, outsider artist,
vaudevillian:
Abner Jay was a real One Man Band and, as he put it,
"the last great Southern black minstrel show". Some more mp3s: [
Cocaine Blues, excerpt]; [
I'm So Depressed, excerpt]; [
The Reason Young People Use Drugs, full]
posted by billysumday
on Aug 30, 2007 -
8 comments
The elixer of youth. Serge Voronoff's
early experiments involved transplanting thyroid tissue into humans with a thyroid deficiency. He also began transplanting the testicles of executed criminals into rich old guys (as a treatment for senility and schizophrenia), but had to stop when the demand for the procedure far exceeding the supply of criminal testicles. At this point, Voronoff began using monkey testicles instead, and his first "monkey gland" to human transplant took place in June of 1920. (via another filter)
posted by caddis
on Jul 3, 2007 -
30 comments
GODMEN. "It's the wuss-ification of America that's getting us!" screeches Stine, 46. A moment later he adds a fervent: "Thank you, Lord, for our testosterone!"
posted by Sticherbeast
on Dec 7, 2006 -
134 comments
