January 2012
8 posts
“I think that Van the Man was merely emphatically advising the fan in which...”
– Language Log » Fucking shut the fuck up
Thanks, Bob.
“I love everything about the brewing process - the coddling of enzymes to convert...”
– —Bob
Boy did that give me a hankering to coagulate some proteins.
Theories of humor - Wikipedia, the free... →
So unsatisfying.
Can charisma be taught? - CBS News Video →
Oh I want that sociometer.
“Introspection means talking to yourself, and one of the best ways of talking to...”
– The American Scholar: Solitude and Leadership - William Deresiewicz
“Our overwhelming power and wealth, earned under earlier generations of leaders,...”
– The American Scholar: Solitude and Leadership - William Deresiewicz
Turning words into touchdowns: Does a player's... →
December 2011
7 posts
Pop Hit Prediction Algorithm Mines 50 Years of... →
Watch(Jesus visits Tim Tebow)
Longest English sentence - Wikipedia, the free... →
Bring it.
Paris Review – Document: The Symbolism Survey,... →
In 1963, a sixteen-year-old San Diego high school student named Bruce McAllister sent a four-question mimeographed survey to 150 well-known authors of literary, commercial, and science fiction. Did they consciously plant symbols in their work? he asked. Who noticed symbols appearing from their subconscious, and who saw them arrive in their text, unbidden, created in the minds of their readers?...
November 2011
4 posts
“Music is not just about notes working out together and the mathematics of...”
– A Carnegie Hall Debut, Inspired By Trout : NPR
Bullshit. Music is about workshop techniques.
Justin Wehr's authoritative conclusions on popular...
In short: I think hit music right now is probably better than at any time in the past two decades (which isn’t necessarily saying much). The electronica and R & B influences mix together in a non-boring and very pleasant way. If I were bigger on lyrics, I might come to a very different conclusion because, generally speaking, the intellectual depth consists of raising glasses and rocking...
“how hard can cutting-edge physics be? I’ve read my Deepak Chopra: the...”
– Oliver Burkeman: age and creativity
October 2011
3 posts
Test Your Vocabulary →
Average native English speaker knows between 20,000 and 35,000 words.
September 2011
9 posts
“People say ‘I’m taking it one day at a time’. You know what? So is everybody....”
– Weingarten: Humor poll
Coeds With Colds: Home of the Sickest Girls on the... →
After inspecting every Price Is Right episode,... →
“He was as lame as a duck. Not the metaphorical lame duck, either, but a real...”
– Week 310: It’s Like This
This whole thing is so delicious: it was a contest to see who could come up with the lamest analogies.
the longest pee-pee of all vertabrates « the... →
You know the date wasn’t a disaster if the conversation managed to turn to male duck anatomy within the first 35 minutes. I made a mental note to look up what she was talking about. All I can say is “WOW, good one, Nature.”
August 2011
17 posts
A question on OkCupid...
Under the right circumstances, would you allow a partner to lick your anus?
There’s something about prefacing this question with “under the right circumstances” that made this hilariously hard to answer.
“It has been proven that more Americans watch television than any other...”
– Gary Mule Deer (from Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up)
Gave me a good chuckle.
OkCupid | goodforagiggle / 26 / M / Durham, North... →
This probably won’t stay up long.
“In the world of Leonard “Stinky” Brown from Hate, “Could it be that I’m a total...”
– Colin Marshall: Maybe it’s me
I responded in the comments.
“I know just enough about economics to be stupid at a slightly more dangerous...”
– Scott Adams Blog: Folksy Economic Wisdom 08/09/2011
eHarmony, trying to let me down gently
Our matching criteria, based on the 29 dimensions of compatibility, are extremely strict, and are what makes eHarmony a unique and powerful tool in finding your soul mate. We will keep searching and hope to find some wonderful matches for you soon.
Clive Tanaka y su orquesta →
I love this guy.
Songs with 3+ listens today
Every song on the Foster the People CD.
Smokey Robinson - Tracks of My Tears
Sea Wolf - You’re a Wolf
Richard Brautigan: Audio Recordings, Record... →
Oh man, this is an exciting discovery for me. (Audio links toward the bottom.)
I also learned on Wikipedia tonight that Brautigan’s suicide note simply read, “Messy, isn’t it?” I don’t know if there is such a thing as a great suicide note, but I can hardly imagine a better one than that.
New rule: If I listen to a song more than 3 times in a single day, I must tumble that sucker, no matter how embarrassing.
Today was a bit outrageous:
Fleet Foxes - Your Protector
Ellie Goulding - Lights
Van Morrison - Comfort You (no linky)
Cat Stevens - The Wind (you shouldn’t need a link)
July 2011
22 posts
CureTogether Blog » Research Findings →
These charts (and this site more generally) are deliciously informative.
Here’s my favorite:
It seems that alcohol and masturbation are, sadly, ineffective. (But what if you combined them…?)
What ancient humans sounded like →
And, oh yeah, woolly mammoths.