ZF7

wow. Portrait of an Eastern Screech Owl - Masters of disguise....

Wed, 22 May 2013 16:15:39 -0700

wow.

Portrait of an Eastern Screech Owl - Masters of disguise. The Eastern Screech Owl is seen here doing what they do best. You better have a sharp eye to spot these little birds of prey. Okeefenokee Swamp, Georgia, USA.

via http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2013/05/national_geographic_traveler_m_1.html

tornado follow up

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:50:45 -0700

various tornado related pieces:

Just 16 minutes before a gigantic twister first developed near Oklahoma City on Monday, the National Weather Service put out a tornado warning.

That doesn’t sound like very much time to get out of the way. For many, it wasn’t: At least 24 people died when the tornado ripped a mile-wide path through the city of Moore, Okla.

But those 16 minutes actually represent an enormous advance for weather science. Back in the 1980s, the average tornado lead time was a scant five minutes. Today, it’s about 13 minutes.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/21/why-are-tornadoes-so-hard-to-predict/

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some frankly mindblowing photos:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2013/05/20/photos-of-moore-oklahoma-after-the-tornadoes.html#23c1d28a-d95f-47be-b73c-1eff780928e2

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Why We Can’t Forget That Oklahoma’s Senators Voted Against Sandy Relief

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/05/why-we-cant-forget-oklahomas-senators-voted-against-sandy-relief/65435/

Nearly four months ago, Oklahoma Senators Tom Coburn and James Inhofe both voted against H.R.152, the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act that eventually sent $50.5 billion in relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy. And in the flurry of last night’s devastation in Moore, Oklahoma. it was impossible not to forget that fact, knowing the federal government would soon rally to the cause.

What Shuster and others are stating is fact. Coburn and Inhofe were two of the 36 Senators who voted against giving victims of Hurricane Sandy what turned out to be $60 billion. Inhofe and Coburn, as HuffPo’s Christina Wilkie pointed out, backed a measure to slash disaster relief to Sandy victims by some $27 billion. In December, Coburn’s office released a statement defending the vote by saying that the bill contained “wasteful spending.” But that bill wasn’t their only shot fired at disaster spending. Wilkie adds:

In 2011, both senators opposed legislation that would have granted necessary funding for FEMA when the agency was set to run out of money. Sending the funds to FEMA would have been “unconscionable,” Coburn said at the time.

The point here is that these Senators, by their votes, did not show compassion to victims of disaster and have a long history of voting that way. So now, with disaster on their own state’s doorstep, are these Senators going to ask for help and money the same way New Jersey’s and New York’s legislators did?

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Backpacks, Human Shields, Above and Beyond: The Oklahoma Teacher Heroes

http://www.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/05/oklahoma-teacher-heroes/65461/

Roughly 1,500 miles separate the elementary schools in Moore, Oklahoma, and Newtown, Connecticut. Six months separate their tragedies. And while there are marked differences between the devastating violence in these two towns brought so quickly and emotionally to the American spotlight, there is at least one uplifting constant: the courage of teachers who tried everything in their power to save the children. Because that’s what teachers do.

“Among the victims were young children trying to take shelter in the safest place they knew: their school,”President Obama said during his press conference addressing the Oklahoma tornado Tuesday. As of Tuesday evening, all students at Briarwood Elementary School and AgapeLand Learning Center have been accounted for; police said seven of nine children confirmed to have died in the storm’s path went to Plaza Towers Elementary.

Of course the terror at Sandy Hook Elementary is not the same as that of the three schools hit by the tornado. And, yes, the death of such young children is a horrifying connection. But as the recovery efforts continue, know that there are men and women in Oklahoma, not unlike the guardians of Sandy Hook, who were there when America’s kids needed them most. These are their stories:

Plaza Towers Elementary

The Woman of Steel “We had to pull a car out of the front hall off a teacher and I don’t know what her name is, but she had three little kids underneath her,” a rescuer is quoted as saying in a story from CNN’s LZ Granderson. Yes, you read that right, rescuers pulled a car off a teacher who was shielding students from harm. And she seemed to survive, as the rescue worker toldKFOR, via Today: “’
Good job, teach,’ he said, breaking into tears.”

The determined Rhonda Crosswhite A sixth-grade teacher at Plaza Towers, Crosswhite threw herself over students who were hiding in the school bathroom as the tornado ripped it to shreds. “I was in a stall with some kids and it just started coming down, so I laid on top of them,” Crosswhite told Savannah Guthrie this morning. ”One of my little boys just kept saying, ‘I love you, I love you, please don’t die with me.’” The children Crosswhite protected are now safe.

AgapeLand Learning Center

Calm during the storm. According to a report from The New York Times, the staff at AgapeLand Learning Center, a daycare facility, was watching over some 15 children when the tornado struck. Staffers began “draping them with a protective covering and singing songs with them to keep them calm,” Times reporters Nick Oxford and Michael Schwirtz write. And “as the wind ripped the roof off one of the bathrooms, and debris rained down on the children, they remained calm, singing ‘You Are My Sunshine,’” the Times team reports, adding that although the daycare facility was smashed to pieces, not one child was harmed.

Ebay - GOOGLE logo Fleece HOODIE SWEATSHIRT Large Gray LG Brand NEW Employee Only NWoT

Tue, 21 May 2013 14:11:51 -0700

Ebay - GOOGLE logo Fleece HOODIE SWEATSHIRT Large Gray LG Brand NEW Employee Only NWoT:

lol, this is a little goofy

I’m not guaranteeing that buying this hoodie will get you more dates. But consider what I saw on a past Thursday night here in Silicon Valley. At one of the bars in downtown Mountain View, there were a couple of guys, evidently Google employees, surrounded by attractive young ladies hanging on their every word. You knew these guys were Googleites because they were wearing white Google logo polo shirts. The Google IPO had just hit the market a few months ago, and the buzz in the Valley was that there were a few thousand Google millionaires minted on that day.

Not that those ladies were just interested in those guys just for their money—I can’t be that crass to assume that. Girls here are just as likely to flock to a man who exhibits profound intelligence—this is Silicon Valley, after all. Ladies, if you’re a graduate of MIT or Carnegie Mellon or Harvey Mudd, why would you pick up a dumb guy?

So tech dudes, listen up—I can’t guarantee that this hoodie will make you a hit with the ladies, or increase your dating ratio by an exorbitant Fibonacci number, but based on what I saw (with my own 2**2 eyes) at that bar, it could just make you a Silicon Valley stud.

And if not, heck, you’ll have purchased a darn good hoodie anyway.

but you know what i say about the girls at the facebook winter party!

also, this (via daniel):

http://wheninpaloalto.tumblr.com/post/35668256876/when-an-engineer-flirts-with-me

WHEN AN ENGINEER FLIRTS WITH ME

If he works at Google/Facebook/Apple:

If he works anywhere else:

(FOR THE RECORD!!!!!, starting dating daniel before he worked for facebook)

HowAboutWe articles about dating

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:32:26 -0700

they published 3 really great pieces, imo, that are squarely in the james school of thought. though i do have to admit my thoughts about this have been changing lately.

Why You’re Lying When You Say ‘I Need a Break From Dating’

http://www.howaboutwe.com/date-report/why-youre-lying-to-yourself-when-you-say-i-need-a-break-from-dating/#

Thinking he’ll show up when you’re not looking

I hate this advice. It’s the romantic equivalent of “Don’t think of a white elephant.” If meeting a partner, lover, boyfriend, etc., is something you really want, you don’t stop looking. This makes no sense.

And yet, this is what women tell each other. Your friends tell you to stop looking, because “that’s exactly how they met their boyfriends.” Unfortunately, what they’re telling you is causally incorrect. It wasn’t the “not looking” that made it happen. It was the not needing, the not obsessing. Closing your eyes to what you really want is the worst idea ever. Quitting dating doesn’t make you better at dating, and certainly doesn’t help you meet people you could really like.

TRY THIS INSTEAD:

Engage, don’t obsess. Let go of your attachment to the idea of how things will or should turn out. That is what’s making you mental. When someone tells you she met the love of her life when she wasn’t even looking, she means she was living her life, not looking to the universe to fill a void. She wasn’t predicting doom or anticipating failure or hating herself for being single. As a result, she was able to be open and engage with other people without a white-knuckled need for This to Be the One.

That’s what you should be doing. When you care for yourself and focus on your life while you stay engaged and open to the people around you, connection becomes an option and a joy. It’s the difference between looking for someone to save you from your life—and looking for someone to share it with.

Self-flagellation

Dating isn’t nearly as hard as the story you tell yourself about it, and the pressure you heap on it. Two people can go on the same date at the same time, and the one who beats herself up more will have a far less satisfying time. The fun of dating comes from the sense of adventure—and a detachment from the outcome.

I know that seems counterintuitive when what you want IS the outcome (i.e., a wonderful relationship with someone who adores you), but it’s that very pressure that sabotages the dater. What you need isn’t a break from dating, but a break from the scary high expectations you have and your own harsh self-judgment.

TRY THIS INSTEAD:

Make connection, not perfection, the goal. Screw finding your soul mate on every date — this is a recipe for disappointment. Go into any and every interaction, whether it’s a formal date or not, with an air of adventure and curiosity. What can you learn about this person, and yourself, in the process? How does it feel to connect with other people, to flirt with them and enjoy their company, regardless of what may follow?

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Graduates, Here’s What You Need to Know About Dating Post-College

http://www.howaboutwe.com/date-report/graduates-heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-dating-post-college/#

People Are Gonna Have Shitty Apartments.

You’ll probably spend at least one night in the next five years on an air mattress, next to a plastic box from the Container store that’s doubling as a night stand, lying awake to the sound of an old man’s phlegmy cough, in some distant, distant part of the city. (But it will probably be worth it, even if you do have to use the map feature on your phone the next morning to find out where the heck you are.)

You’re Going to Be Broke.

You thought you were broke in college, and maybe you were — except you probably also had a nice enough dorm room, an all-you-can-eat cafeteria, and a social life consisting mostly of free parties and campus events.

Now, you have an adult job, but also rent to pay, groceries to buy, and bar tabs to settle. And most, if not all, of your friends are in the same boat.

When it comes to dating, the early-twenties are a tricky time. Guys may be used to the idea of paying for their dates’ meals and drinks and tickets, but it’s possible that the guys you date after college literally cannot afford to be chivalrous. Which is fine, because it’s 2013, and you’re more than able to step up to the plate.

If you’re seeing someone, alternate on splitting the bill — one day he gets it, and one day you get it. Stick to cheaper restaurants (falafel can be romantic!), pre-game when you’re going out (sharing a flask can be romantic!) and be on the lookout for free events, like book readings, free museum days, gallery opens, etc. (Frugality can be romantic!)

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Survey Finds Cheating Via Text Is Worse Than Cheating in Real Life

http://www.howaboutwe.com/date-report/why-cheating-via-text-is-worse-than-cheating-in-real-life/#

So what is “cheating,” and what is not? The answer, of course, is purely subjective, and depends on the comfort level of each person in the relationship. Still, it’s always good to know what everyone else thinks.

And thus the Huffington Post, in partnership with YouGov, set out to poll 1,000 U.S. adults about what they consider to be adulterous behavior. Here are some highlights of the findings:

- 60% say it’s cheating if you form a “deep emotional connection” with someone else.

- 48% would consider it cheating if their partner kissed someone else on the lips.

- 24% said messaging an ex on Facebook equals cheating.

- 24% would consider it cheating if their partner went to a strip club.

- 79% of respondents said sending sexy texts or photos to someone else is cheating.

Yes, you read that right — less than a quarter of people have NO PROBLEM with their partners going to strip clubs, but almost 80% say it’s cheating if you send someone sexy texts. And many of the people who said it’s cheating to text someone DON’T think it’s cheating if you kiss someone else on the lips.

io9 - Star Trek Into Darkness: The Spoiler FAQ

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:22:25 -0700

io9 - Star Trek Into Darkness: The Spoiler FAQ:

a very troll-y, hilarious SPOILER FILLED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! takedown of star trek. to quote the article: maximum spoilers ahead:

How does the movie start?

Well, with Kirk and Bones fucking with a planet of primitive aliens. They steal some kind of holy scroll, and then get chased through a red jungle.

Seems like kind of a dick move.

Well, it’s not very clear, but ostensibly they’ve stolen the scroll to get chased, in order to draw the aliens away from a volcano that’s about to explode.

Okay, that seems reasonable.

Except that 1) when the volcano erupts, it’s going to kill everybody on the planet, so it hardly matters where they are, and 2) Spock is getting dropped down into the volcano to set off a cold fusion bomb.

Wait, what?

Yeah, he sets off the cold fusion bomb and all the lava freezes.

You know cold fusion isn’t actually cold, right? It’s only “cold” in the sense that opposed to regular fusion it’s not a bazillion degrees hot.

Huh.

And did you say Spock was in the volcano? Why the hell didn’t they just beam the bomb in there?

Um, something about the planet’s magnetic field. Although they do beam Spock out of the volcano just a few minutes later, so…

And why did Spock have to go with the bomb to set it off? Are you telling me in the 23^rd century that people don’t have a way to detonate bombs remotely? That’s stupid.

Well —

And why the fuck is the Enterprise just carrying around a cold fusion suitcase bomb anyways?

Look, you’re getting very upset, and this is just the first scene of the movie.

and

So next movie is “The Search for Kirk,” I suppose?

Nah. See, Bones drew some of Khan’s blood to figure out why he was so strong and resilient, and he injected it into a dead Tribble because… because I suppose Bones’ hobby is inject dead things with various people’s blood? It’s a little weird.

/sound of facepalm

As it happens, as soon as Bones’ hears Kirk has died, the dead Tribble comes back to life, thanks to Khan’s blood!

/sound of gun being loaded

The Killerprise has crash-landed on San Francisco, and Khan is of course fine despite the destruction of many, many high-rise buildings and thousands upon thousands of people. Spock chases Khan down, they have a fist fight on top of some moving flying cars, and with help from Uhura they get their man. And they bring Kirk back to life!

Uh-huh. So they’ve just eliminated death forever.

Beg pardon?

Kirk was dead for many, many minutes of radiation poisoning, right? He gets injected with Khan’s blood —

A synthesized version of it.

— even better. So what wouldn’t Khan’s blood fix? Decapitation, but most other mortal wounds? Poisons? Phaser blasts, I bet. Certainly most other illnesses and cancers and such. And probably aging, at leats to an extent. So basically Bones has discovered the secret to eternal life, and not only will no one on the Enterprise ever need to die again unless their body is somehow destroyed, but all of the civilization — heck, probably galactic civilization – will be irrevocably changed because of this amazing discovery.

Uh, I don’t think so. I think they just save Kirk and then forget about it.

Of course they do. And I suppose the Tribble that Bones brought back to life multiplies like Tribbles do and causes its own horrible situation?

No, it’s just not mentioned again. Maybe Bones kills it with his bare hands to keep it from spawning. Or maybe he injects it with Mountain Dew or something, since that’s how he rolls.

/sound of gun being cocked

And then Kirk gives a speech at Starfleet a year later, because everything is all about him, and then they start on their five-year mission! Which will almost certainly involve Space Whales, since that’s the next biggest thing people remember about Star Trek. The end!

OMG SPACE WHALES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whilst in SF: Arrested Development Edition

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:18:00 -0700

Whilst in SF: Arrested Development Edition:

AFTER YOUR 9TH CRAIGSLIST OPEN HOUSE

TRYING TO LISTEN TO THE TRAIN CONDUCTOR OVER THE LOUDSPEAKER

THE MOMENT I REALIZE I’VE MADE EYE CONTACT
WITH A CANVASSER

BEING THE ONLY PERSON HEADING TO
BAY TO BREAKERS ON THE BUS

ANYTIME ANYTHING HAPPENS ON MUNI, IT’S JUST LIKE:

WHEN I VISIT A PACKED DOLORES PARK
AT 2:00 P.M. ON A WEEKDAY

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as facebook exploded with everyone’s BEST SUNDAY EVER!!!!!!!! (or kevin’s “this weekend, like every weekend, i did epic new things with really close friends and had the time of my life in distinctive stylistic manners”, i feel obligated to contribute less you think less of me. (ugh, hate life-recap-bragging. remind me to tell you about all my lackluster weekends.) friday, an initial setback of an earlier than expected closing of a restaurant allowed us to go to roots, the best restaurant in san francisco, located near kearny and bush, and everyone should go right now. and watched elementary while in food coma with the two DOAMF and fell asleep while watching tv, which was THE BEST (to be honest, i actually fell asleep when they finished, and then when daniel slept, i couldn’t sleep so i rewatched the parts that i missed). the puzzle hunt ended up being great; really fun team dynamics and everyone brought great attitudes, really fantastic puzzles and a-ha moments, and tromping around the city, including a “LEAD SINGER OF U2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” which was awesome and why i do puzzle hunts. we later made an impromptu salad and linglings and watched house of cards with justin/mason. and then sunday we woke up early for the spontaneity and whimsy of bay to breakers. beautiful weather, casual, festive run with mark/patrick, and a reasonably priced brunch, star trek, and then an exceptionally good crop of housemate interviews and the most fun i’ve had with housemates in a long time. and dinner/hottubbing with mark. best weekend i’ve had in awhile.

Quora - Are people in San Francisco more flaky than those in the rest of the country?

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:12:54 -0700

Quora - Are people in San Francisco more flaky than those in the rest of the country?:

this is so delicious

Oh heavens yes.

Here in Boston, if you and I agree to meet at Mass Ave and Boylston Street at 9:30 AM three weeks from Thursday, that’s it. It’s done. Nothing more needs to be said, and barring force majeure, both of us will be at the corner of Mass and Boylston at 9:30 AM that day—actually, probably at 9:25 AM. (*)

If, for some reason—some LEGITIMATE reason—it becomes impossible that we meet that day, the afflicted party contacts the other to reschedule as soon as it becomes clear that’s the case. The amount of apologizing this involves varies inversely with the time left until the moment we originally agreed to meet.

Meanwhile, in San Francisco, if two people agree to meet at 9:30 AM, one of them will show up at 10, and will call the other person at 10:15. When they eventually get through to them, it’ll transpire that the missing party decided to go up to Napa that day. “But you never called me to confirm, so I figured we were off.”

If you’re saying to yourself right now “What’s this ‘called to confirm’ nonsense?”, well, that’s just what I said to myself the first two or three times someone pulled this stunt on me.

I wouldn’t say this is the only reason I decided to move back to the East Coast, but it’s an important one.

Having moved here from Israel in 2002, the difference was very, very noticeable. I was used to “let’s meet up on Friday” meaning “let’s meet up on Friday”, not “I will add you to my already oversubscribed list of options for Friday, and will choose whichever I feel like at the last minute”.

Now, when I go back to Israel, I’m surprised when people consistently follow through on plans…

My observation has been that, in general (and obviously there are exceptions) Americans are more flaky than Europeans, Californians are more flaky than Americans, and San Franciscans are more flaky than Californians.

I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that people in SF are not grounded here. Very few people you meet here grew up here or will grow old here. SF is a playground for 20- and 30-somethings to have self-centered fun in a state of arrested development.

But in the back of everyone’s mind is the day when they get married and move to the suburbs, or back to wherever-it-is-they-are-from. So we don’t form lasting communities, just temporary mutual interest groups. And the level of commitment drops accordingly.

WaPo - Here’s what the Oregon Medicaid study really said

Wed, 15 May 2013 17:10:21 -0700

WaPo - Here’s what the Oregon Medicaid study really said:

this is more of a link interesting to me than others. (via trevor, a fellow actuary!!!)

The Oregon Medicaid experiment is an academic miracle born out of a human tragedy.

A few years back, Oregon found the money to add 10,000 residents to the state’s Medicaid program. The only problem was that there were 90,000 residents who qualified for the program and desperately wanted in. So the state held a lottery. Welcome to the American health-care system. Greatest in the world, folks.

But 80,000 Oregonians’ loss was science’s gain. The lottery gave researchers an opportunity that’s almost never available in policymaking: They could create a randomized controlled study — the absolute gold-standard of experimental design — comparing the health outcomes of the lucky Oregonians who received Medicaid to those who didn’t. It would be the first time that kind of study had even been used to compare the insured and the uninsured.

how cool is this?! the cost of the uninsured vs. cost of insured is actually something that we spent a lot of time debating at our job since many uninsured are going to be covered (hopefully by kaiser!) (unless they’re unhealthy, in which case hopefully not by kaiser!) next year.

So here’s what happened in the first two years of the Oregon Medicaid experiment: Medicaid proved itself good health insurance. The people who got Medicaid used more health care, and seem to have done so smartly — they got preventive care, they got their diabetes diagnosed and began managing it, they treated their depression, and so on. But the health care itself didn’t work as well as we hoped — at least not in terms of cutting rates of hypertension and cholesterol.

There are a number of possible spins you can put on that finding. One is that the study was simply too small, with too few sick people, to show the kind of quick health changes the researchers were looking for. Sharply increasing the number of people who are managing their diabetes and mental health, getting colonoscopies and mammograms, and making regular trips to the doctor sure seems like the kind of thing that will improve long-term health outcomes. Other studies with a less rigorous — but still credible — design and a longer timeframe have shown that states that expanded Medicaid saw a six percent drop in death rates among the newly insured group.

Another is that the Medicaid enrollees are getting bad health care. But the study mostly seems to blow up that argument. Medicaid’s critics have long worried that the program pays so little that the people on it don’t actually get care. But Medicaid recipients were getting care, and the care they were getting appears to have made sense.

A third and more radical interpretation is that health care — or at least the kind of routine health care insurance buys you — simply doesn’t work that well. After all, it’s not as if the Oregon study contradicts past randomized studies pitting the insured against the uninsured. It’s the only study of its kind. In that way, it’s a unicorn.

TVLine - How I Met Your Mother Final Season Scoop: [Spoiler] Will Meet the Mother First

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:53:00 -0700

TVLine - How I Met Your Mother Final Season Scoop: [Spoiler] Will Meet the Mother First:

so after 8 long seasons, viewers finally got to see who the mother is in how i met your mother.

Series cocreator Carter Bayspreviously revealed that as HIMYM unspools its ninth and final season, viewers will become “much better” acquainted with Cristin Milioti’s bass-playing cutie – whom we first and briefly laid eyes on at the close of the Season 8 finale — as the show tells “the epic story of the longest wedding weekend ever.”

CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler has now confirmed for TVLine that Season 9′s entire run will, in fact, span the wedding weekend and just the wedding weekend, as the comedy details “how each character,before Ted, meets the mother. So, they each meet her independently before he does.”

but the entire season will rotate around *one* weekend!? this sounds so epic. i want an epic weekend like that. i’m excited.

apparently another new show in 2013, mixology, will be playing with time as well and the entire season will take place over the course of ONE NIGHT IN A BAR, even more crazy than the HIMYM gauntlet. i can only imagine there are a LOT of flashbacks.

Recurring Developments

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:28:33 -0700

Recurring Developments:

An interactive visualization of running jokes in Arrested Development.

it’s pretty awesome. so many arrested development inside jokes!!!!!!!!!!

my favorites: chicken dance, “ann? her?”, lucille winks, “the mere fact that you call it that…”, “well that was a freebie.”, literal doctor

LA Times - Man hands out Abercrombie clothes on skid row in bid to shame brand

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:24:58 -0700

LA Times - Man hands out Abercrombie clothes on skid row in bid to shame brand:

abercrombie CEO says he doesn’t want fat people or uncool people wearing abercrombie.

guy gives out abercrombie clothes to homeless as payback.

my roommate chris mentioned something along these lines, which is, isn’t that sort of re-stigmatizing homeless people as society’s unwanted?

and then i remembered this story

http://jezebel.com/5964344/college-student-behind-hobojacket-prank-apologizes-jeopardizing-jackass-status

where the guy got EVISCERATED for trying to do basically something similar: trying to clothe the homeless while also doing a nice zinger to their college rival.

funny how press has been overwhelmingly positive for the first and overwhelming negative for the second even though they strike me as being ideologically identical.

David Foster Wallace - This Is Water okay, so this video went...

Wed, 15 May 2013 16:09:22 -0700

David Foster Wallace - This Is Water

okay, so this video went viral last week.

i think the video is well done in the sense that… it presents the speech in a really compelling, life-changing, dynamic manner.

but i think the actual message is actually pretty weak. the idea is that we control the way we perceive reality? i mean, that strikes me as sort of a stupid idea. ”make up potentially really tear-inducing backstories to make you feel less shitty about your own life.” like we should encourage living in a fantasy world?

shouldn’t the message be to *control* your own reality, and not just your perception? why is this person going to the grocery store to buy food to cook after an impossibly long work schedule?! shouldn’t it be “hey, you hate going to the grocery store, there are 100’s of more convenient options that would make you happier”

i mean, it’s one thing not to make it “about yourself”, which is an interesting point, but his example just seems so stupid. like paying healthcare premiums or all the sacrifices that we make for other people—i feel like those would have been better examples of being selfless and not just thinking about how our own lives are impacted.

also: the way it tenuously loops in “this is water”. it says it so dramatically. but i’m confused what it has to do with anything.

okay, end rant.

OMG YES PITCH PERFECT i wonder if he does eat burgers though. in...

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:39:55 -0700

OMG YES PITCH PERFECT

i wonder if he does eat burgers though.

in other news, i saw 21 jump street this weekend, and it was absolutely incredible. sharp as a whip, characters to empathize with and cheer for, and a great story. it is definitely one of my all time favorite movies, up there with national treasure, easy A, and cabin in the woods. and she’s the man, sure.

Hyperbole and a Half: Depression Part Two

Thu, 09 May 2013 11:33:40 -0700

Hyperbole and a Half: Depression Part Two:

for the uninitiated, hyperbole and a half is the blog with crude childlike drawings that gave rise to the “alot” meme, but also some other lesser known ideas like “creepy hate spiral”. i liked the blog alot and it inspired stace to get me the alot sweatshirt. that i think angeles has. anyway.

she stopped posting for a year in a half. and then she just resurfaced! to write a really well-written, extremely earnest, quite funny, really helpful explanation of understanding depression. it brings me back to my college roommate who probably had depression and i remember really just *not getting it*. i wish i had this back then.

i really liked this, on how people offer feedback that is not helpful and oftentimes people just want to be acknowledged and not fixed:

and this, on the age old question of, how do you tell people that you might be suicidal?

and how she doesn’t take the easy way out in saying everything will be alright and knows that these things are difficult:

it’s pretty remarkable how much press this entry is getting for a blog that’s been dormant for 1.5 years.

sickness and significant others

Thu, 09 May 2013 10:06:29 -0700

lately, i’ve heard stories about people around my age who i know nontrivially who:

is bound to a wheelchair due to extreme lower body pain due to a ruptured spinal disc
is on bedrest because their heart rate can’t exceed 75 due to a congenital heart problem
has brain cancer and gets bad headaches and has to get brain surgery

it’s one thing to get these after being married for 20 years, it’s another thing to get these early in a relationship. esp with problems that may not go away. i wonder how significant others deal with this. i wonder how i would deal with it.

in other news, both daniel and i are pretty seriously ill. both not really COLD/FLU things, i’m fairly sure i have a stomach bug. daniel has a nontrivial intersection of my symptoms, but also some other symptoms with differing magnitudes, so the jury is still out as to whether we have the same thing. timing is non-ideal given the wedding that we’re going to this weekend which is a semi-hs reunion.

(i feel significantly better today than i did yesterday though, where all i could do was lay in bed, whew)

Kiss Cam Breakup May 3, 2013

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:30:45 -0700

Kiss Cam Breakup May 3, 2013

Atlantic Wire - In Defense of Oversharing a Little Too Much Information

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:47:49 -0700

Atlantic Wire - In Defense of Oversharing a Little Too Much Information:

Oversharing is widely deplored and highly criticized, and those who commit the crime are often themselves considered affronts to good taste. Maybe they can’t help it. Also, couldn’t it be worse? Beware the undershare!

this is a weirdly specific piece, but i thought it was unique and hit on topics and themes that i agree with strongly. people saying they don’t like something when they thrive on it. how undersharing is just as bad, if not worse. how the listener should remove themselves, not the speaker, if they feel uncomfortable. the importance of being interesting. mark, go read more quora.

Except we kind of want it, I think. We all want to feel. And oversharing is bound to have that effect not only on the sharer, but also on the recipient of that sharing. Note that no one gets criticized specifically for undersharing. No one says that word. People just say “boring.” And it does seem that women in particular (and women who write especially) are unduly criticized — not for being dull, but for the sin of oversharing. As Tyler Coates writes at FlavorWire in a piece defending Mandy Stadtmiller (a writer who’s oft been accused of the crime), ”It’s a word usually lobbed at female writers, particularly those whose personal essays are reduced by male critics (a nice way of saying ‘Internet commenters’) as self-indulgent, navel-gazing screeds that serve no purpose other than directing attention to the writer’s byline.”

Of course, there are all kinds of oversharing ranging from amateur to professional. Some forms of the trade may be accidental and excusable due to stress; other types seem to exist purely to get attention. Perhaps these are the really offensive sorts of overshares. If you’re oversharing for the page views or for your friends to surround you with hugs and support only for you to say later, oh, that was no biggee at all, that’s not great. If you’re doing it to make others uncomfortable, on purpose, that’s rather deplorable. One must be ever-wary, too, of the slippery oversharing slope, that idea that the next overshare must be bigger and better and, well, you might just be bringing about the end of effective sharing in society. When all the overshares have been shared, one might ask, what is left?

There is a fine line between sharing (widely, even universally considered good) and oversharing (widely, even universally considered bad). Some of what the world dubs an “overshare,” I might just call “fun stuff to talk about over drinks with friends.” And I’d contend that far worse than the much-decried overshare is the undershare. It is more insidious than its predecessor for numerous reasons. One, because we get nothing from it. It is both uninteresting and highly unsatisfying to live in an utterly polite perfect society in which no one says anything that bothers anyone else, not least because someone is always going to be bothered. Oversharing, too, does the service of giving people things to rail against, to enjoy, to learn from, to feel better about themselves with. And there are people who make their livings based on oversharing, or on pointing out someone else’s oversharing (see STFU Parents, a valuable example of the former). Where would the economy, and our enjoyment levels, be without it?

In Victorian times, perhaps, the overshare was a whisper about one’s corset button coming unclasped during a mixed-gender tea. Today, well, it might be a blog post about sex, or bodily fluids, or the end of a relationship. But it’s not so much that what we share has changed (though sometimes it has). It’s that sharing on the internet means we see it everywhere, and our reactions are proportionate to our intake. Perhaps that makes us tired, or cranky, but an anti-sharer can certainly walk away, or block a Facebook feed, or stop reading certain blogs. Imagine a day without anything that might remotely be described by anyone else as an overshare. How drab. How stultifying. How impossible. How sans the letter I.

Hitfix - Soderbergh on the state of the industry, and why 'cinema is shrinking'

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:41:32 -0700

Hitfix - Soderbergh on the state of the industry, and why 'cinema is shrinking':

esp in light of iron man, a tirade by the famous director for how the movie industry is broken and (certainly it’s been said, but there are actual numbers and helpful examples) how movie ideas now skew toward LARGER movies:

“So then there’s the expense of putting a movie out, which is a big problem. Point of entry for a mainstream, wide-release movie: $30 million. That’s where you start. Now you add another 30 for overseas. Now you’ve got to remember, the exhibitors pay half of the gross, so to make that 60 back you need to gross 120. So you don’t even know what your movie is yet, and you’re already looking at 120. That ended up being part of the reason why the Liberace movie didn’t happen at a studio. We only needed $5 million from a domestic partner, but when you add the cost of putting a movie out, now you’ve got to gross $75 million to get that 35 back, and the feeling amongst the studios was that this material was too “special” to gross $70 million. So the obstacle here isn’t just that special subject matter, but that nobody has figured out how to reduce the cost of putting a movie out.”

things that travel best are going to be action-adventure, science fiction, fantasy, spectacle, some animation thrown in there. Obviously the bigger the budget, the more people this thing is going to have to appeal to, the more homogenized it’s got to be, the more simplified it’s got to be. So things like cultural specificity and narrative complexity, and, god forbid, ambiguity, those become real obstacles to the success of the film here and abroad.

————-

But let’s go back to Side Effects for a second. This is a movie that didn’t perform as well as any of us wanted it to. So, why? What happened? It can’t be the campaign because all the materials that we had, the trailers, the posters, the TV spots, all that stuff tested well above average. February 8th, maybe it was the date, was that a bad day? As it turns out that was the Friday after the Oscar nominations are announced, and this year there was an atypically large bump to all the films that got nominated, so that was a factor. Then there was a storm in the Northeast, which is sort of our core audience. Nemo came in, so God, obviously, is getting me back for my comments about monotheism. Was it the concept? There was a very active decision early on to sell the movie as kind of a pure thriller and kind of disconnect it from this larger social issue of everybody taking pills. Did that make the movie seem more commercial, or did it make it seem more generic? We don’t know. What about the cast? Four attractive white people… this is usually not an obstacle. The exit polls were very good, the reviews were good. How do we figure out what went wrong? The answer is: We don’t. Because everybody’s already moved on to the next movie they have to release.

Now, I’m going to attempt to show how a certain kind of rodent might be smarter than a studio when it comes to picking projects. If you give a certain kind of rodent the option of hitting two buttons, and one of the buttons, when you touch it, dispenses food 40% of the time, and one of the buttons when you touch it dispenses food 60% percent of the time, this certain kind of rodent very quickly figures out never to touch the 40% button ever again. So when a studio is attempting to determine on a project-by-project basis what will work, instead of backing a talented filmmaker over the long haul, they’re actually increasing their chances of choosing wrong. Because in my view, in this business which is totally talent-driven, it’s about horses, not races. I think if I were going to run a studio I’d just be gathering the best filmmakers I could find and sort of let them do their thing within certain economic parameters. So I would call Shane Carruth, or Barry Jenkins or Amy Seimetz and I’d bring them in and go, ok, what do you want to do? What are the things you’re interested in doing? What do we have here that you might be interested in doing? If there was some sort of point of intersection I’d go: Ok, look, I’m going to let you make three movies over five years, I’m going to give you this much money in production costs, I’m going to dedicate this much money on marketing. You can sort of proportion it how you want, you can spend it all on one and none on the other two, but go make something.

———-

But let’s sex this up with some more numbers. In 2003, 455 films were released. 275 of those were independent, 180 were studio films. Last year 677 films were released. So you’re not imagining things, there are a lot of movies that open every weekend. 549 of those were independent, 128 were studio films. So, a 100% increase in independent films, and a 28% drop in studio films, and yet, ten years ago: Studio market share 69%, last year 76%. You’ve got fewer studio movies now taking up a bigger piece of the pie and you’ve got twice as many independent films scrambling for a smaller piece of the pie. That’s hard. That’s really hard.

————

I don’t want to bring this to a conclusion on a down note. A few years back, I got a call from an agent and he said, “Will you come see this film? It’s a small, independent film a client made. It’s been making the festival circuit and it’s getting a really good response but no distributor will pick it up, and I really want you to take a look at it and tell me what you think.” The film was called Memento. So the lights come up and I think, It’s over. It’s over. Nobody will buy this film? This is just insane. The movie business is over. It was really upsetting. Well fortunately, the people who financed the movie loved the movie so much that they formed their own distribution company and put the movie out and made $25 million. So whenever I despair I think, OK, somebody out there somewhere, while we’re sitting right here, somebody out there somewhere is making something cool that we’re going to love, and that keeps me going. The other thing I tell young filmmakers is when you get going and you try to get money, when you’re going into one of those rooms to try and convince somebody to make it, I don’t care who you’re pitching, I don’t care what you’re pitching – it can be about genocide, it can be about child killers, it can be about the worst kind of criminal injustice that you can imagine – but as you’re sort of in the process of telling this story, stop yourself in the middle of a sentence and act like you’re having an epiphany, and say: You know what, at the end of this day, this is a movie about hope.

soderbergh is in theory “retired”. he’s done a bunch of varied movies including erin brokovich, ocean’s 11, magic mike.

his solution: focus on talent and don’t go crazy with the testing; give them free rein to do whatever they want:

In my view, in this business which is totally talent-driven, it’s about horses, not races. I think if I were going to run a studio I’d just be gathering the best filmmakers I could find and sort of let them do their thing within certain economic parameters. So I would call Shane Carruth or Barry Jenkins or Amy Seimetz and I’d bring them in and go, ok, what do you want to do? What are the things you’re interested in doing? What do we have here that you might be interested in doing? If there was some sort of point of intersection I’d go: O.K., look, I’m going to let you make three movies over five years, I’m going to give you this much money in production costs, I’m going to dedicate this much money on marketing. You can sort of proportion it how you want, you can spend it all on one and none on the other two, but go make something.

Kotaku - Why Many in China Hate Iron Man 3's Chinese Version

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:33:15 -0700

Kotaku - Why Many in China Hate Iron Man 3's Chinese Version:

There are two versions of Iron Man 3: One is the international version, and the other is the Chinese version, with added scenes. This version was made especially for the People’s Republic. But that certainly doesn’t mean everybody there likes it.

tl;dr: the chinese version has an additional 4 minutes that are goofy and totally out of place and pandering to the chinese ego.

slightly spoilery in this tumbl, but not anything that you wouldn’t have guessed. the actual link is pretty spoilery.

In Dr. Wu’s office, you can see Tony’s Iron Man on a TV screen, surrounded by Chinese children and what looks like…Dr. Wu. The good doctor then calls Tony, but J.A.R.V.I.S., the A.I. butler, answers. It’s worth noting that in even in the subtitled version, there are no subtitles in this sequence; J.A.R.V.I.S. speaks in Mandarin Chinese. While speaking with J.A.R.V.I.S., Dr. Wu actually says in Chinese, “Tony doesn’t have to do this alone—China can help.”

There’s also this extra long shot of Dr. Wu awkwardly pouring a glass of Yili brand Chinese milk. But it’s pure product placement. Before the movie starts, there are two China specific ads: One of them is a Chinese milk commercial that, as The Hollywood Reporter points out, asks, “What does Iron Man rely on to revitalize his energy?” (The answer is a Yili milk drink.) The second commercial is for a Chinese manufacturer of tractors and cranes.

M’kay.

Chinese bloggers like Buddha Kicking Rabbit are already calling the pre-movie ads the most unintentionally funny parts of the film and even recommend going early so you don’t miss them.

obviously there is some pandering to the second largest (totally unsubstantiated) movie market, but people in the comments also mention that there is a shortlist of 34 foreign films that can be released in china each year, and this was iron man’s negotiation tactic to get onto screens in china.

also, 2nd biggest domestic opening ever:

http://www.businessinsider.com/iron-man-3-blows-2013-opening-weekends-out-of-the-water-2013-5

However, the most staggering appeal about the opening weekend for “Iron Man 3” is that its intake in one weekend is larger than all of the earnings for the box-office top 12 each weekend prior in 2013.

Take a look at the five largest box-office weekends of the year:

Buzzfeed - 27 Things You Had To Deal With As The Only Black Kid In Your Class

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:34:40 -0700

Buzzfeed - 27 Things You Had To Deal With As The Only Black Kid In Your Class:

lol. i know, it’s not terribly novel, but the gifs add a lot.

anyway:

1) it reminds me of the condom article because i personally think that some of these supposed quasi-racist things are actually fine and should be asked. ”why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria” (one of the items on their list) is in fact one of the most thought provoking books i read in college. being color blind is often less productive than seeing race.

2) the “you’re attractive … for a black person” just reminds me of all those discussions about how certain things “are not allowed” to be said. i’ve been watching cougar town, and one of the story lines is how laurie LOVES black guys. and there are lines like “i love it when he’s on top of me, he’s so black i feel like i’m in a sensory deprivation chamber” or “i like his personality so much that…. i would like him even if he weren’t black.”

so…. on an offensive scale out of 10 (if i were to see someone say the statement). ”i would like him, ….”

“…even if he were white” (2/10) (same as above statement)
“…even if he were black” (6/10)
“…even if he were gay” (8/10) (okay assume that it’s platonic liking)
“…even if he wore glasses” (1/10)
“…even if he were fat” (3/10)
“…even if he were skinny” (1/10)
“…even if he were poor” (4/10)

i don’t know, why are some of these more or less offensive than others? because some of them promote the underdog while others perpetuate harmful power dynamics. like it’s okay to have black pride but not okay to have white pride. also why it’s okay to say “i like asians” or “i like femme guys” on grindr profiles but not okay to say “i like white people” or “i like straight acting guys”.

at the end of the day, i feel like you can be in one of three camps:

1) people should be allowed to say whatever they want and perpetuate malicious power roles in society (because of 1st amendment rights, honesty/authenticity, etc) (i think mason and pmc fall into these buckets, within reason)

2) people should be allowed to say whatever they want AS LONG AS they do not perpetuate malicious power roles in society. (where i fall)

3) people should not be allowed to reveal any sort of preference because any mention of preference is a public demonstration of discrimination. reverse discrimination is still discrimination.

i understand the rationale behind all 3, and believe that you can be a totally rational, good person and still fall into any of the 3 camps. but i will still debate you vigorously.

OKAY WRAPUP GIF

ZF7

wow. Portrait of an Eastern Screech Owl - Masters of disguise....

tornado follow up

Why We Can’t Forget That Oklahoma’s Senators Voted Against Sandy Relief

Backpacks, Human Shields, Above and Beyond: The Oklahoma Teacher Heroes

Plaza Towers Elementary

AgapeLand Learning Center

Ebay - GOOGLE logo Fleece HOODIE SWEATSHIRT Large Gray LG Brand NEW Employee Only NWoT

HowAboutWe articles about dating

Why You’re Lying When You Say ‘I Need a Break From Dating’

Thinking he’ll show up when you’re not looking

TRY THIS INSTEAD:

Self-flagellation

TRY THIS INSTEAD:

Graduates, Here’s What You Need to Know About Dating Post-College

People Are Gonna Have Shitty Apartments.

You’re Going to Be Broke.

————————————————————————-

Survey Finds Cheating Via Text Is Worse Than Cheating in Real Life

io9 - Star Trek Into Darkness: The Spoiler FAQ

Whilst in SF: Arrested Development Edition

AFTER YOUR 9TH CRAIGSLIST OPEN HOUSE

TRYING TO LISTEN TO THE TRAIN CONDUCTOR OVER THE LOUDSPEAKER

THE MOMENT I REALIZE I’VE MADE EYE CONTACT WITH A CANVASSER

BEING THE ONLY PERSON HEADING TO BAY TO BREAKERS ON THE BUS

ANYTIME ANYTHING HAPPENS ON MUNI, IT’S JUST LIKE:

WHEN I VISIT A PACKED DOLORES PARK AT 2:00 P.M. ON A WEEKDAY

Quora - Are people in San Francisco more flaky than those in the rest of the country?

WaPo - Here’s what the Oregon Medicaid study really said

TVLine - How I Met Your Mother Final Season Scoop: [Spoiler] Will Meet the Mother First

Recurring Developments

LA Times - Man hands out Abercrombie clothes on skid row in bid to shame brand

David Foster Wallace - This Is Water okay, so this video went...

OMG YES PITCH PERFECT i wonder if he does eat burgers though. in...

Hyperbole and a Half: Depression Part Two

sickness and significant others

Kiss Cam Breakup May 3, 2013

Atlantic Wire - In Defense of Oversharing a Little Too Much Information

Hitfix - Soderbergh on the state of the industry, and why 'cinema is shrinking'

Kotaku - Why Many in China Hate Iron Man 3's Chinese Version

Buzzfeed - 27 Things You Had To Deal With As The Only Black Kid In Your Class

THE MOMENT I REALIZE I’VE MADE EYE CONTACT
WITH A CANVASSER

BEING THE ONLY PERSON HEADING TO
BAY TO BREAKERS ON THE BUS

WHEN I VISIT A PACKED DOLORES PARK
AT 2:00 P.M. ON A WEEKDAY