Andrej C › Comments

An interesting article - Andrej C

"University of California Berkeley professor Michael Zielenziger argues in his book Shutting Out the Sun that post-bubble Japan has created its own “lost generation” of the young and aimless. The grafting of capitalism onto Japan’s unique “social architecture,” writes Zielenziger, has resulted in a Japan with “nothing to believe in,” a spiritual crisis whose only balm is sought in cycles of materialism that neither satisfy nor heal." - Goran Zec

"We argue that depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits...depression is nature’s way of telling you that you’ve got complex social problems that the mind is intent on solving...d...epression seems more like the vertebrate eye—an intricate, highly organized piece of machinery that performs a specific function..." - Andrej C from Bookmarklet

"'Batten down the hatches' is often misrendered as 'batter down the hatches'. It's fascinating that changing a single letter could change the literal meaning of a phrase to its opposite, while its meaning as an idiom is still understood. To 'batter' something down is to break it through brute force. A batten is a strip of wood used to reinforce something or cover gaps. Literally, the... more... - Goran Zec

I didn't know that "hear hear" is a shortened form of 'Hear him! Hear him!', it's been 'the regular form of cheering in the House of Commons' since the 17th Century. - Andrej C

very interesting set of pictures - Andrej C from Bookmarklet

I just spent this year's allowance of faves. - mzec

Pablo Amaringo (1938-) is an acclaimed Peruvian artist, renowned for his intricate, colourful depictions of his visions from drinking the entheogenic plant brew, ayahuasca. - Andrej C

according to Narby Amaringo has photographic memory - Andrej C

Incredible display of strength and skill of these two gymnasts - Andrej C from Bookmarklet

...three teenagers yelling and screaming “Agha! What did I do?” as police slapped, kicked, and pepper-sprayed them. Ibrahim attempted to intervene, but again was ignored. It was no longer even an ideological battle. There was no rhetoric. One of the teenagers was clubbed in the neck without warning. He fell to the ground twitching and, it quickly became clear, paralyzed from the waist down. We didn’t know if we should move him but we did know that anything we did would have to wait until the Basiji and police moved on to another target, so like janitors we waited to clean up the mess. ... - Andrej C from Bookmarklet

The number of deaths from street drug overdoses dropped from around 400 to 290 annually, and the number of new HIV cases caused by using dirty needles to inject heroin, cocaine and other illegal substances plummeted from nearly 1,400 in 2000 to about 400 in 2006 - Andrej C from Bookmarklet

Previously: http://ff.im/2ohiU "Compared to the European Union and the U.S., Portugal's drug use numbers are impressive. Following decriminalization, Portugal had the lowest rate of lifetime marijuana use in people over 15 in the E.U.: 10%. The most comparable figure in America is in people over 12: 39.8%. Proportionally, more Americans have used cocaine than Portuguese have used marijuana." - Goran Zec

They invested a lot of money to maintain its exterior and interior. The exterior remains almost intact. - Andrej C from Bookmarklet

The reason there are 60 minutes in an hour is due to the mathematics of the Sumerians, Babylonians and Egyptians and the structure of the human hand. - Andrej C from Bookmarklet

Brooke Greenberg is the size of an infant, with the mental capacity of a toddler. She turned 16 in January. - Andrej C from Bookmarklet

"Science, it is said, depends largely on observation. While this is true, it cannot be the whole story" - Andrej C from Bookmarklet