The Uncoordinated Porpoise

"A 2011 Gallup poll revealed that if American men between the ages of 18 and 49 could have only one..."

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:55:25 -0500

“A 2011 Gallup poll revealed that if American men between the ages of 18 and 49 could have only one child, 54% would want a boy; “no preference,” at 26%, beat out girls, who rated a measly 19%.”

- http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/161/branding-for-girls-advertising-for-women

smolderinghomosexuality: collectormaniac: TODAY. Oh look,...

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 11:54:57 -0500

smolderinghomosexuality:

collectormaniac:

TODAY.

Oh look, it’s me.

"Whenever anyone has called me a bitch, I have taken it as a compliment. To me, a bitch is assertive,..."

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:30:04 -0500

“Whenever anyone has called me a bitch, I have taken it as a compliment. To me, a bitch is assertive, unapologetic, demanding, intimidating, intelligent, fiercely protective, in control—all very positive attributes. But it’s not supposed to be a compliment, because there’s that old, stupid double standard: When men are aggressive and dominant, they are admired, but when a woman possesses those same qualities, she is dismissed and called a bitch.”

- Margaret Cho (via chrystinetea)

Eeeeeee!

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:33:18 -0400

Eeeeeee!

Photo

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:23:26 -0400

Liz Lemon: You're a lawyer?

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 21:26:55 -0400

Liz Lemon: You're a lawyer?
Floyd: I prefer 'legal stylist.'

animalstalkinginallcaps: I SWEAR I SHOULD JUST GET “I LOVE...

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 19:52:24 -0400

animalstalkinginallcaps:

I SWEAR I SHOULD JUST GET “I LOVE CARBS” TATTOOED ON MY CHEST.

blueandbluer: ultraprism: THE TRUEST TRUTH THAT EVER...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:30:39 -0400

blueandbluer:

ultraprism:

THE TRUEST TRUTH THAT EVER TRUTHED.

THIS

Astronomers Discover 16 Super-Earths

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:05:19 -0400

Astronomers Discover 16 Super-Earths:

European astronomers announced Monday they’ve discovered 50 new planets, including 16 so-called Super-Earths, one of which is potentially habitable.

The existence of the exoplanets outside our solar system was reported at the Extreme Solar Systems meeting at Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. Astronomers made the discovery using the High Accuracy Radical velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) telescope in Chile. Over the past eight years, that instrument has helped discover a total of 150 new planets.

Of special interest are the Super-Earths, which are larger than our planet, but not as big as “ice giant” planets like Neptune. In particular, one of the worlds, HD 85512 b, is estimated to have a mass of about 3.6 times that of the earth. That planet is also close enough to its star that liquid water, which is considered essential for life, may be present.

curiositycounts: The rise of e-readers and what it means for...

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 07:05:57 -0400

curiositycounts:

The rise of e-readers and what it means for the future of reading in America. Ebbing technology notwithstanding, ebooks still have nothing on these die-cut analog books to die for.

libraryland: usnews: Documents Show Feds Believed in the Yeti:...

Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:27:43 -0400

libraryland:

usnews:

Documents Show Feds Believed in the Yeti: Newly unearthed State Department documents confirm for the first time Uncle Sam’s belief that the Abominable Snowman roamed the mountains of Nepal in the 1950s, a finding that has shocked federal officials including the archivist who discovered the papers.

Long written off as a myth—it was never caught or photographed—the documents provided by the National Archives show that officials in the State Department, Foreign Service, and U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, not only believed in “Yeti,” but endorsed rules for American expeditions to follow when hunting the toothy monster down.

File this one under History’s Mysteries.

npr: In honor of the classic SNL skit poking fun at NPR, Ben...

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:18:21 -0400

npr:

In honor of the classic SNL skit poking fun at NPR, Ben & Jerry’s has released a new flavor: Schweddy Balls Ice Cream.

Mmm…. Good times.

Want

"To live surrounded by books may be the greatest luxury."

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:55:55 -0400

“To live surrounded by books may be the greatest luxury.”

- Nate Berkud

Bad idea

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 20:57:33 -0400

“oh, I’ll just watch a Doctor Who before I go to bed”

Now, I’m wide awake.

ALA TechSource: What Smartphone Internet Usage Means for Libraries

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 13:38:30 -0400

ALA TechSource: What Smartphone Internet Usage Means for Libraries:

eBooks have been the hot topic in libraryland for a few months now and with good reason. It seems like every other day there is some new revelation that makes us either jump for joy or groan in agony. While these conversations and revelations have been happening, there has been another revolution underfoot.

The Pew, Internet, and American Life Project released a report last month on the usage of smartphones. We have known that smartphone ownership was increasing dramatically, and that use was up among minorities, and this report confirms the trends.

“I think libraries have jumped on some of the fun aspects of smartphone ownership, like QR codes, but the needs of some of our patrons are much, much more basic than that. I am not advocating that we stop doing the fun things with technology; we should have fun. In doing those fun things, we just have to remember to put effort into basic technology support as well. Some of our patrons need to be able to access us from their phones and need to be able to walk through our doors to use our high speed internet. Perhaps, while they visit us online or in person, we can show them something else amazing that we can do for them.”

Labor Day = Doctor Who marathon via Netflix Instant

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:32:52 -0400

Labor Day = Doctor Who marathon via Netflix Instant

The Guardian: Google Plus forces us to discuss identity

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 15:06:02 -0400

The Guardian: Google Plus forces us to discuss identity:

calimae:

Here’s why we need a critical debate about Google’s Real Name policy: first, because it embodies a highly controversial theory of human behaviour, that the way to maximise civility is to abolish anonymity – even though everyone knows Muammar Gaddafi’s real name (though not how to spell it) and no one knows the name of the kind driver who slows to let you cross the road.

Second, because it embodies an equally controversial theory of identity: that our lives are best lived when we have a single identity that persists in all contexts over time, so your grandparents get the same experience of you that your lover does, your boss sees the same side of you that your toddler does.

Next, because social services exert pressure on non-users – when all your friends join G+, the pressure mounts on you to do the same.

And finally, because the policy Google espouses is likely to exact costs on its users long after they made their “use/don’t use” decision, and those consequences are not easy to discern in advance.

This last reason is the most important one. Google suggests that our internet use is a series of fair trades: I’ll give you the management of my identity if you give me easy social experiences and easy logins across multiple services.

The post that linked me to this article makes an excellent additional point: “Lewis Carroll wrote fiction yet Charles Dodgson wrote mathematics textbooks…even though both happened to be the same physical person.” This separation of identities would not be possible on Google Plus, even with the Circles functionality, since Circles still require that all of your contacts see your ‘real name’, even though you can compartmentalize the interactions you have with groups of those contacts.

Perspehone: Chef tries to live on food stamps

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 21:11:17 -0400

Perspehone: Chef tries to live on food stamps:

Great piece. Well worth taking a few minutes to read.

“Wilder visited the doctor at the beginning and end of his experiment. Unsurprisingly, while he’d lost weight, his triglycerides, sugars, cholesterol and blood count were higher. His body fat percentage had increased 3%. And he was VERY happy to be done with the penny-pinching.”

NYTimes: Scroll to Codex to eBook

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:46:40 -0400

NYTimes: Scroll to Codex to eBook:

A brief overview of why bound books prevailed over scrolls, and why using an e-reader may make it more difficult to appreciate some works.

But so far the great e-book debate has barely touched on the most important feature that the codex introduced: the nonlinear reading that so impressed St. Augustine. If the fable of the scroll and codex has a moral, this is it. We usually associate digital technology with nonlinearity, the forking paths that Web surfers beat through the Internet’s underbrush as they click from link to link. But e-books and nonlinearity don’t turn out to be very compatible. Trying to jump from place to place in a long document like a novel is painfully awkward on an e-reader, like trying to play the piano with numb fingers. You either creep through the book incrementally, page by page, or leap wildly from point to point and search term to search term. It’s no wonder that the rise of e-reading has revived two words for classical-era reading technologies: scroll and tablet. That’s the kind of reading you do in an e-book.

The National Archives: President Eisenhower's Recipe for Vegetable Soup

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 11:11:06 -0400

The National Archives: President Eisenhower's Recipe for Vegetable Soup: