jimmyhooker

"I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is..."

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 03:23:58 -0700

“I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say. And it is permitted to [say] such things as, “Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.” Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, “He’s a Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists.” This is not the way we should be doing it in America.”

- Colin Powell (via goodreasonnews) (via evangotlib) (via inothernews) (via marissaallison) (via cijimcb) (via apsies) (via soupsoup)

KWAB

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:08:07 -0700

KWAB

Disabled People are Funny

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 18:20:39 -0700

robdelaney:

Hi there. I had an interesting comedy experience last night that I wanted to share with America and other people who can speak/read English. First I will say that I do a lot of comedy all over the place and have performed in a variety of locations and under a variety of circumstances, both wonderful and shitty. That is normal if you do comedy and are not very famous. You do a show in a horrible bar where people hate you and tell you to shut up one night and then you perform at a nice, shiny Improv in a suburb where polite people clap and laugh and thank you for being delightful the next. That variety and juxtaposition is not part of the deal; it is the deal.

Two days ago, my friend Will called me and asked if I would do a show for the camp that he runs for people with disabilities. A very nice restaurant in Beverly Hills, called the Roxbury Café had agreed to let the camp take over for the night and have a comedy show.

I have volunteered with Will’s camp, The Cheshire Project on and off for about five years and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, so I said “Yes, Will, it is with much pleasure that I will come do this show.”

Read More

Roger Federer as Religious Experience

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:38:59 -0700

Roger Federer as Religious Experience:

youmightfindyourself:

Almost anyone who loves tennis and follows the men’s tour on television has, over the last few years, had what might be termed Federer Moments. These are times, as you watch the young Swiss play, when the jaw drops and eyes protrude and sounds are made that bring spouses in from other rooms to see if you’re O.K.

The Moments are more intense if you’ve played enough tennis to understand the impossibility of what you just saw him do. We’ve all got our examples. Here is one. It’s the finals of the 2005 U.S. Open, Federer serving to Andre Agassi early in the fourth set. There’s a medium-long exchange of groundstrokes, one with the distinctive butterfly shape of today’s power-baseline game, Federer and Agassi yanking each other from side to side, each trying to set up the baseline winner…until suddenly Agassi hits a hard heavy cross-court backhand that pulls Federer way out wide to his ad (=left) side, and Federer gets to it but slices the stretch backhand short, a couple feet past the service line, which of course is the sort of thing Agassi dines out on, and as Federer’s scrambling to reverse and get back to center, Agassi’s moving in to take the short ball on the rise, and he smacks it hard right back into the same ad corner, trying to wrong-foot Federer, which in fact he does — Federer’s still near the corner but running toward the centerline, and the ball’s heading to a point behind him now, where he just was, and there’s no time to turn his body around, and Agassi’s following the shot in to the net at an angle from the backhand side…and what Federer now does is somehow instantly reverse thrust and sort of skip backward three or four steps, impossibly fast, to hit a forehand out of his backhand corner, all his weight moving backward, and the forehand is a topspin screamer down the line past Agassi at net, who lunges for it but the ball’s past him, and it flies straight down the sideline and lands exactly in the deuce corner of Agassi’s side, a winner — Federer’s still dancing backward as it lands. And there’s that familiar little second of shocked silence from the New York crowd before it erupts, and John McEnroe with his color man’s headset on TV says (mostly to himself, it sounds like), “How do you hit a winner from that position?” And he’s right: given Agassi’s position and world-class quickness, Federer had to send that ball down a two-inch pipe of space in order to pass him, which he did, moving backwards, with no setup time and none of his weight behind the shot. It was impossible. It was like something out of “The Matrix.” I don’t know what-all sounds were involved, but my spouse says she hurried in and there was popcorn all over the couch and I was down on one knee and my eyeballs looked like novelty-shop eyeballs.

Anyway, that’s one example of a Federer Moment, and that was merely on TV — and the truth is that TV tennis is to live tennis pretty much as video porn is to the felt reality of human love.

NATURE | Behind the Scenes of “Hummingbirds” | PBS...

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:30:56 -0700

NATURE | Behind the Scenes of “Hummingbirds” | PBS (via PBS)

Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury (via racheldoesstuff)

Sun, 22 Aug 2010 03:03:48 -0700

Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury (via racheldoesstuff)

The Prom Date (via OrbitDirtyShorts) Disturbing, but great.

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 07:52:25 -0700

The Prom Date (via OrbitDirtyShorts)

Disturbing, but great.

CUPCAKE CANNON (via KmpGrz)

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:53:01 -0700

CUPCAKE CANNON (via KmpGrz)

via i1.2photo.ru

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:20:50 -0700

via i1.2photo.ru

via ngm.nationalgeographic.com

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 01:49:36 -0700

via ngm.nationalgeographic.com

jhnmyr: nickholmes: Never give up. This is precisely the...

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 03:34:56 -0700

jhnmyr:

nickholmes:

Never give up.

This is precisely the reason why, in my future household, I will be changing the wifi password daily on a router that is connected to the only cable access point in my home, locked in my closet.

Oh god

innerHi

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:33:43 -0700

innerHi:

This is mindblowing on a level I’ve never before witnessed. It’s such a detailed 3D journey into cellular function. I’ve never seen such a thing. It’s hypnotic.

SAWSTOP in TimeWarp (via Stasnet) Unbelievable to watch this.

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:07:26 -0700

SAWSTOP in TimeWarp (via Stasnet)

Unbelievable to watch this.

soupsoup: makingofmovies: Explaining Inception

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:52:31 -0700

soupsoup:

makingofmovies:

Explaining Inception

We're happier when busy but our instinct is for idleness

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 01:09:29 -0700

We're happier when busy but our instinct is for idleness:

youmightfindyourself:

Forced to wait for fifteen minutes at the airport luggage carousel leaves many of us miserable and irritated. Yet if we’d spent the same waiting time walking to the carousel we’d be far happier. That’s according to Christopher Hsee and colleagues, who say we’re happier when busy but that unfortunately our instinct is for idleness. Unless we have a reason for being active we choose to do nothing - an evolutionary vestige that ensures we conserve energy.

Consider Hsee’s first study. His team offered 98 students a choice between delivering a completed questionnaire to a location that was a 15-minute round-trip walk away, or delivering it just outside the room and then waiting 15 minutes. A twist was that either the same or different types of chocolate snack bar were offered as a reward at the two locations.

If the same snack bar was offered at both locations then the majority (68 per cent) of students chose the lazy option, delivering the questionnaire just outside the room. By contrast, if a different (black vs. white) bar was offered at each location then the majority (59 per cent) chose the far away ‘busy’ option. This was the case even though earlier research showed both snack bar options were equally appealing, and even though the location of the two snack bar types was counterbalanced across participants. In other words, Hsee said, the students’ instinct was for idleness, but when they were given a specious excuse for walking further, most of them took the busy option. Crucially, when asked afterwards, the students who’d taken the walk reported feeling significantly happier than the idle students, consistent with Hsee’s theory that we’re happier when busy (a repeat of the study in which students were allocated without choice to the idle or busy condition led to the same outcome - the busier students felt happier).

In a variant of this first study, students asked to evaluate a bracelet had the option of either spending fifteen minutes waiting time sitting idle or spending the same time disassembling the bracelet and rebuilding it. Those given the option of rebuilding it into its original configuration largely chose to sit idle - consistent with our having an instinct for idleness. By contrast, those told they could re-assemble the bracelet into a second, equally attractive and useful design tended to take up the challenge - again, an excuse, however superficial, for activity seems to be all it takes to spur us on. As before, those who spent the fifteen minutes busy subsequently reported feeling happier than those who sat idle.

Given that being busy makes us happier but that our instinct is for idleness, Hsee’s team say there is a case for encouraging what they call ‘futile busyness,’ that is: ‘busyness serving no purpose other than to prevent idleness. Such activity is more realistic than constructive busyness and less evil than destructive busyness.’

The researchers proceed to argue that, unfortunately, most people will not be tempted by futile busyness, so there’s a paternalistic case for governments and organisations tricking us into more activity: ‘housekeepers may increase the happiness of their idle housekeepers by letting in some mice and prompting the housekeepers to clean up. Governments may increase the happiness of idle citizens by having them build bridges that are actually useless.’ In fact, according to Hsee’s team, such interventions already exist, with some airports having deliberately increased the walk to the luggage carousel so as to reduce the time passengers spend waiting idly for luggage to arrive.

The Muppets: Pöpcørn (via MuppetsStudio) This is great

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:38:52 -0700

The Muppets: Pöpcørn (via MuppetsStudio)

This is great

Coma

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:09:27 -0700

Coma:

This is a pretty fun, almost dreamy little game. Pretty short, give it a shot

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU (by...

Sun, 11 Jul 2010 06:30:47 -0700

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU (by blu)

Takes a minute, but as always worth the watch

youmightfindyourself: Kevin Spacey, impersonations

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 04:51:52 -0700

youmightfindyourself:

Kevin Spacey, impersonations

Antibody Kills 91% of HIV Strains

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 05:37:20 -0700

Antibody Kills 91% of HIV Strains:

youmightfindyourself:

mikehudack:

fullcredit:

In a significant step toward an AIDS vaccine, U.S. government scientists have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered.

Looking closely at the strongest antibody, they have detailed exactly what part of the virus it targets and how it attacks that site.

The antibodies were discovered in the cells of a 60-year-old African-American gay man, known in the scientific literature as Donor 45, whose body made the antibodies naturally. Researchers screened 25 million of his cells to find 12 that produced the antibodies. Now the trick will be for scientists to develop a vaccine or other methods to make anyone’s body produce them.

Holy shit.

Yes.