How to live in a swamp and be three-dimensional

The recession finally hits the McGyver household: a small...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:24:00 -0500

The recession finally hits the McGyver household: a small do-it-yourself wood stove made out of an old mailbox.

Hubba Hubba.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:18:25 -0500

Hubba Hubba.

This looks pretty sexy to me right now.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:10:00 -0500

This looks pretty sexy to me right now.

i think i'm going to turn to folk religion.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:50:20 -0500

scottfriday:

you know, rubbing potatoes on warts and burying them, divining rods, stuff like that.

Let me know if you need any help. I’ve got a PhD in spiritual basket weaving and bird gut augury.

All Day And All Of The Night - The Kinks

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:40:00 -0500

All Day And All Of The Night - The Kinks

"The great secret the hedonists keep to themselves: that time allows pleasure, not money."

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:46:00 -0500

“The great secret the hedonists keep to themselves: that time allows pleasure, not money.””

- (Anthony Marais, Delusionism.)

Time sandwiches are just a little too dry for my taste.

Just War

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:28:00 -0500

I get that it’s a theory for establishing peace through necessary and justified violence, but it totally sounds like it could also be a really awesome mall store.

Guitar Case Bookshelf. For the special hippie nerd in your...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:17:14 -0500

Guitar Case Bookshelf. For the special hippie nerd in your life.

(via suprbo)

gamesockson: love-and-radiation: yosamanthrax: (via...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:18:37 -0500

gamesockson:

love-and-radiation:

yosamanthrax:

(via hunterhalberg)

It’s going on the list of possible Thesis Titles.

Known for their classic albums: Tell Me About Your Atom Heart Mother, Dark Side of The Mind, Momentary Lapse of Reason and Wish Fulfillment You Were Here.

Earlier this afternoon…

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:36:44 -0500

Earlier this afternoon…

Mission Accomplished

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 15:25:12 -0500

Houston, we have bangs.

I’d put up a pic but I’m still shaking from the trauma of having to stare at my face in a mirror for an hour. I thought I might end up looking like Spock or Lloyd Christmas for a second there. Luckily it’s slightly more Peggy from Mad Men.

I do have an Aldi by me...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:42:12 -0500

sistermarymartha:

yosamanthrax:

jss:

But I’m scared of it. I’ve gotten it into my head that everything there is on the brink of expiration. Will I die if I eat food from there? I mean, I guess I basically eat toxic waste anyway, but does Aldi carry even worse toxic waste?

No, not at all. I love Aldi. You should check it out.

Aldi is owned by the same company that owns Trader Joes, and they’re pretty reputable.

They’re great. And it wastes less because they don’t do the fancy displays and free bags thing. If I had one nearby I’d get my staples there and fresh produce from a co-op or farmer’s market. Another kickass place in NYC is Western Beef. The prices there make me choke with rage and bile when I go into any other Manhattan grocery store.

neurotical: Why the fuck are there all these shitheads everyfuckingwhere, being treated as...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:25:00 -0500

neurotical:

Why the fuck are there all these shitheads everyfuckingwhere, being treated as authorities? I don’t get it. Shitheads spouting their opinion, is, well, disconcerting, but whatevs. But shitheads given a platform and serious attention? I don’t get it. Is there some sort of shithead charisma I’m unaware of? And people don’t care! They do not fucking care. The same people who want to see Obama’s birth certificate are the same ones who will listen to any shithead proclaiming themselves an expert on something — without any proof at all! — and people are just like, it’s all good. I’m just gonna keep buying what you are selling. But I don’t entirely blame them. Because if you choose to give these shitheads exposure and it’s not framed similarly to an interview with Elmo, then I don’t really get it.

America has a love/hate relationship with independence and authority, which makes many Americans act like toddlers that will do exactly what they are advised not to just to prove that they have some sort of control.

Academic authorities and many scientists are ivory tower elitists who have no “common sense” and therefore cannot be trusted. Americans “don’t let no one tell them what to do,” and “keep it real,” especially when some weirdo specialized academic with no folksy appeal is using big words on purpose to try to trick them or make them feel dumb. Academia is as weird as Heaven’s Gate Cult or Scientology to many Americans. People who never learned scientific method or reasoning skills are as suspicious of the process as I am of faith healing.

So any boob that claims to have common sense and spouts the popular myths and opinions of the day, smearing on a thick layer of bad reasoning or bad science behind it gets lifted up as an acceptable authority. “Well, if he has his own news show and he looks just like my Uncle Bill and he says what I always suspected or hoped to be true, why then he must be right!” They crave the authority but they want it in a package that fits their cultural expectations and never makes them feel stupid.

Did you know that crows recognize faces and teach each other to...

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:26:00 -0500

Did you know that crows recognize faces and teach each other to scold naughty humans?

“John M. Marzluff, a wildlife biologist at the University of Washington, has studied crows and ravens for more than 20 years and has long wondered if the birds could identify individual researchers. Previously trapped birds seemed more wary of particular scientists, and often were harder to catch. “I thought, ‘Well, it’s an annoyance, but it’s not really hampering our work,’ ” Dr. Marzluff said. “But then I thought we should test it directly.”

To test the birds’ recognition of faces separately from that of clothing, gait and other individual human characteristics, Dr. Marzluff and two students wore rubber masks. He designated a caveman mask as “dangerous” and, in a deliberate gesture of civic generosity, a Dick Cheney mask as “neutral.” Researchers in the dangerous mask then trapped and banded seven crows on the university’s campus in Seattle.

In the months that followed, the researchers and volunteers donned the masks on campus, this time walking prescribed routes and not bothering crows.

The crows had not forgotten. They scolded people in the dangerous mask significantly more than they did before they were trapped, even when the mask was disguised with a hat or worn upside down. The neutral mask provoked little reaction. The effect has not only persisted, but also multiplied over the past two years. Wearing the dangerous mask on one recent walk through campus, Dr. Marzluff said, he was scolded by 47 of the 53 crows he encountered, many more than had experienced or witnessed the initial trapping. The researchers hypothesize that crows learn to recognize threatening humans from both parents and others in their flock.

After their experiments on campus, Dr. Marzluff and his students tested the effect with more realistic masks. Using a half-dozen students as models, they enlisted a professional mask maker, then wore the new masks while trapping crows at several sites in and around Seattle. The researchers then gave a mix of neutral and dangerous masks to volunteer observers who, unaware of the masks’ histories, wore them at the trapping sites and recorded the crows’ responses.

The reaction to one of the dangerous masks was “quite spectacular,” said one volunteer, Bill Pochmerski, a retired telephone company manager who lives near Snohomish, Wash. “The birds were really raucous, screaming persistently,” he said, “and it was clear they weren’t upset about something in general. They were upset with me.”

Again, crows were significantly more likely to scold observers who wore a dangerous mask, and when confronted simultaneously by observers in dangerous and neutral masks, the birds almost unerringly chose to persecute the dangerous face. In downtown Seattle, where most passersby ignore crows, angry birds nearly touched their human foes. In rural areas, where crows are more likely to be viewed as noisy “flying rats” and shot, the birds expressed their displeasure from a distance.”

(via nytimes)