Gainful Unemployment

"But the thing about the mannequins was that each represented, as far as was possible, a painstaking..."

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 11:53:01 -0700

“But the thing about the mannequins was that each represented, as far as was possible, a painstaking reconstruction of a particular soldier. That is, the Nazi had found a uniform and tracked down as many records of the actual soldier to whom it’d belonged. He’d identified and tracked down other possessions that belonged to the solider. He knew the soldier’s rank, his shoe size, his hair and eye color, knew exactly how many medals that particular soldier had received as well as the occasions upon which they had been awarded.”

- Matthew Vollmer | New England Review

Fascinating account of visiting a Nazi memorabilia collector’s secret stash.

"Why is it that the elite French perfumers (known as “noses”) and sommeliers (“upturned noses”) of..."

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 11:51:42 -0700

“Why is it that the elite French perfumers (known as “noses”) and sommeliers (“upturned noses”) of the world spend so much of their time inhaling cat effluvia from expensive glass bottles? A guess: It may have to do with a mind-control parasite called Toxoplasma gondii. The tiny protozoan may be getting into our brains and tricking us into liking cats—not to mention certain perfumes and wines.”

- Chanel No. 5: A brain parasite may be the secret to the famous perfume. - Slate Magazine

Half-baked but interesting theory about toxo, that “mind control” cat parasite that we all talked about for 5 minutes a few months ago.

"Some entertainers don’t pay attention to what’s going on around them. They just go, “Oh, cool, I’m..."

Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:59:26 -0700

“Some entertainers don’t pay attention to what’s going on around them. They just go, “Oh, cool, I’m playing this place.” They just do it, and they take the money. But if you pay attention, you find out that the economics are very simple. If you want more money, the fans pay for it. They just pay. And so I decided, “Okay, I’m making enough. Let’s drive the ticket prices down a bit.” I decided to do that a couple years ago, especially because the economy was shitty.”

- Louis C.K. on eating pressure and providing an alternative to The Man | Comedy | Interview | The A.V. Club

Louis C.K. So fucking punk he doesn’t even know it.

Iggy Azalea in Steve Aoki’s “Beat Down.”

Sat, 21 Jul 2012 11:50:27 -0700

Iggy Azalea in Steve Aoki’s “Beat Down.”

Larry Eats A Pancake - Larry David - Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:40:21 -0700

Larry Eats A Pancake - Larry David - Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee:

It’s anti-social media not to let people embed your video. If you care to click through, you will get to a 13 minute video of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David going to lunch. Moments that make it worth your time are fleeting, but hey, Larry David.

Why does Jerry do the thing where he’s DYING laughing at a semi-funny joke? So irritating.

Louis CK on the Daily Show offending people.

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:15:20 -0700

Louis CK on the Daily Show offending people.

Tig Notaro’s standup set on Conan. Her stool bit is an...

Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:00:38 -0700

Tig Notaro’s standup set on Conan. Her stool bit is an incredible lesson in comic timing and how to manipulate the audience like a maestro.

Lakewood Blueclaws minor league baseball mascot race. (Photo via...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 11:52:49 -0700

Lakewood Blueclaws minor league baseball mascot race.

(Photo via Slate)

"The micro-blogging website had argued that the posts belonged to activist Malcolm Harris and as such..."

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:52:01 -0700

“

The micro-blogging website had argued that the posts belonged to activist Malcolm Harris and as such it would be violating fourth amendment privacy rights if it were to disclose the communications without first receiving a search warrant.

But a Manhattan judge ruled on Monday that under a timeline set out by federal law, a warrant is only needed for the final day’s worth of messages from Harris, who is accused of disorderly conduct in relation to a protest on the Brooklyn Bridge in October.

All other tweets prior to this date could legitimately be demanded by means of subpoena, it was ruled.

”

- Twitter forced to release Occupy protester’s tweets to New York court | World news | guardian.co.uk

Just so you know your legal twattling rights…

Miss Holocaust Survivor pageant. (Photo via Slate)

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:53:54 -0700

Miss Holocaust Survivor pageant.

(Photo via Slate)

"You can’t meet someone until you’ve become what you’re becoming."

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 11:56:17 -0700

“You can’t meet someone until you’ve become what you’re becoming.”

- Lena Dunham Remembers Nora Ephron : The New Yorker

Nora Ephron to Lena Dunham. I think this is partly why I choose not to be attached.

Frogs in India being blessed in a wedding ceremony. (Photo via...

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 11:58:33 -0700

Frogs in India being blessed in a wedding ceremony.

(Photo via MSNBC)

"I went to Porter House, my favorite restaurant. I was with a woman who was not with me for free. I..."

Sat, 07 Jul 2012 11:58:16 -0700

“

I went to Porter House, my favorite restaurant. I was with a woman who was not with me for free. I think she had a filet with some kind of a salad and no vegetables, and I think she had wine. I don’t drink at all. I just had unsweetened iced tea.

She didn’t charge me for dinner, because I wouldn’t pay somebody to eat with them. But as a part of the night, she was like, “Yeah, we can go out and eat first, if you want,” so I was like, “Oh, okay,” and then we went home and kind of hung out. I had her for technically an hour, but she was cool with doing something else beforehand because she was kind of familiar with me, so she didn’t mind going out and eating. So we spent probably two and a half hours together.

”

- Comedian Jim Norton Has Salmon in New York, Uni in L.A. — Grub Street New York

Did Jim Norton say he took an escort to get steak dinner???

Backstage at Senegal Fashion Week. (Photo via Guardian)

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 12:00:30 -0700

Backstage at Senegal Fashion Week.

(Photo via Guardian)

"Starting in 2006, millions of dollars were hastily distributed to grantees to further this poverty..."

Thu, 05 Jul 2012 11:59:24 -0700

“

Starting in 2006, millions of dollars were hastily distributed to grantees to further this poverty reduction strategy. The money went to such enterprises as “Laugh Your Way America,” a program run by a non-Spanish speaking Wisconsin minister who used federal dollars to offer “Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage” seminars to Latinos. It funded Rabbi Stephen Baars, a British rabbi who’d been giving his trademarked “Bliss” marriage seminars to upper-middle-class Jews in Montgomery County, Maryland, for years. With the help of the federal government, he brought his program to inner-city DC for the benefit of African American single moms.

The marriage money was diverted from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program (formerly known as welfare), and much of it went to religious groups that went to work trying to combat the divorce rate in their communities by sponsoring date nights and romance workshops. In some cities, the local grantees used their federal funds to recruit professional athletes to make public service announcements touting the benefits of marriage. Women’s groups were especially critical of the marriage initiative, largely because it was the baby of Wade Horn, a controversial figure who Bush installed at HHS as the head of the Administration for Children and Families and the administration’s official “marriage czar.”

”

- The GOP’s Dead-End Marriage Program | Mother Jones

Budget allocated welfare funds to marriage counseling programs that would supposedly help poor people stay married, working and off welfare. So far, it hasn’t worked.

Flying skirt with crinoline reflected on smoked glass.

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 11:43:44 -0700

Flying skirt with crinoline reflected on smoked glass.

"But there’s another explanation for why kids loved pizza Lunchables when adults didn’t. If there’s..."

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:59:04 -0700

“

But there’s another explanation for why kids loved pizza Lunchables when adults didn’t. If there’s one overwhelming conclusion researchers have drawn from sensory testing about kids’ preferences, it’s that they’re crazy about sugar—a predilection that actually develops in utero. And it’s not just that kids like sweet, says Gary Beauchamp, the president and director of the Monell Chemical Senses Center; they crave it in much higher concentrations than adults do.

So it’s not just the adventure of constructing their own made-to-order (cold) pie that’s made countless kids beg their parents to send them to school with an Extra Cheesy Pizza Lunchable, including juice and Airheads candy, in tow. The combination box’s 28 grams of sugar (that’s nearly six teaspoons) probably has something to do with it, too.

”

- Consumer taste tests for children: how food manufacturers tailor research to the very young. - Slate Magazine

Why kids consider the combo of crust, cold sauce, cold meat and cold shredded cheese to be “pizza.” Pizza Lunchables account for about 25% of all Lunchables sales.

The article, of course, doesn’t address why once-cooked cold pizza is acceptable, even coveted, by adults.

"In a blog post written last year, Google explained how it planned to avoid the leap second issue by..."

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 21:07:36 -0700

“

In a blog post written last year, Google explained how it planned to avoid the leap second issue by using a tactic it called a “leap smear”.

This involved incrementally adding tiny fractions of time - a couple of milliseconds - gradually over the course of a day.

“This meant that when it became time to add an extra second at midnight, our clocks had already taken this into account, by skewing the time over the course of the day,” explained Christopher Pascoe, the company’s site reliability engineer.

”

- BBC News - Leap second and storm disrupt weekend web services

Time is malleable, smearable like butter.

Falkland Stampede. British Columbia, Canada. (Photo via Reuters...

Mon, 02 Jul 2012 11:56:54 -0700

Falkland Stampede. British Columbia, Canada.

(Photo via Reuters Photographers Blog)

"For a decision that could ultimately affect more than a million soldiers in the Army, reserves and..."

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 11:59:00 -0700

“

For a decision that could ultimately affect more than a million soldiers in the Army, reserves and National Guard, the sudden shift from Program Executive Office Soldier was a head-scratcher. The consensus among the researchers was the Army brass had watched the Marine Corps don their new uniforms and caught a case of pixilated camouflage envy.

“It was trendy,” Stewardson said. “If it’s good enough for the Marines, why shouldn’t the Army have that same cool new look?”

”

- $5B CAMO SNAFU - The Daily

The Army spent $5 billion on pixelated camouflage gear that only really worked in gravel pits. The pattern went into production in 2004. The Army soldiers wore gear that made them stand out in their environment for 8 years.