Jennifer Taylor › Likes

"Taking walks is the entry drug into the quiet, solitary heaven of idleness (the next level up is “sitting on a bench without a view”). For modern Americans, idleness is a shameful, private indulgence.  If they attempt it in public, they are stricken by social anxiety. They seem to fear that the slow, solitary, and obviously purposeless amble that marks “taking a walk” signals social incompetence or a life unacceptably adrift. If a shopping bag, gym bag, friend or dog cannot be manufactured, nominal non-idleness must be signaled through an ostentatious “I have friends” phone call, or email-checking. If all else fails, hands must be placed defiantly in pockets, to signal a brazen challenge to anyone who dares look askance at you, “Yeah, I’m takin’ a walk! You got a problem with that?” In America, visible idleness is a luxury for the homeless,  the delinquent and immigrants.  The defiantly tautological protest, “I have a life,” is quintessentially American. The American life does not exist until it is filled up. Even a pause at a bench must be justified by a worthwhile view or a chilled drink." - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

Interesting that the "average" French face appears noticeably elongated compared to some of the others. I wonder what the sample sizes were on these. - Ruchira S. Datta

This proves indeed that the majority of humans are Caucasians, notably in South Africa. It also suggests that Africa is a continent of 4 regions, as opposed to diverse Europe! - Ramy Karam Aziz

"Back at the piano, Lulu made me pay. She punched, thrashed and kicked. She grabbed the music score and tore it to shreds. I taped the score back together and encased it in a plastic shield so that it could never be destroyed again. Then I hauled Lulu's dollhouse to the car and told her I'd donate it to the Salvation Army piece by piece if she didn't have "The Little White Donkey" perfect by the next day. When Lulu said, "I thought you were going to the Salvation Army, why are you still here?" I threatened her with no lunch, no dinner, no Christmas or Hanukkah presents, no birthday parties for two, three, four years. When she still kept playing it wrong, I told her she was purposely working herself into a frenzy because she was secretly afraid she couldn't do it. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic. Jed took me aside. He told me to stop insulting Lulu—which I wasn't even doing, I was just motivating her" - Simon from Bookmarklet

... and here's the SFGate story on how she was taken out of context: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin... - Mr. Gunn

Here's a quote that I found interesting and sad: "Hart and Risley estimated that by the age of 4, children of professional parents had heard on average 48 million words addressed to them while children in poor welfare families had heard only 13 million." - Michal Cierniak

Duckies! - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

Awwww! I've never seen anything like that. If I saw that, I'd want to rush over and try to help the babies that were blowing too far away. Though I see that they took care of themselves. Their feathers were barely ruffled. - Kamilah Reed (K. Gill)

Super like this building...any pics on how the *inside* of the building looks like? - Space Cowboy

I would assume it looks pretty normal. After all, it was the camera that was tilted. - Andrew C (✓)

The building is a normal building inside and out: the picture was taken at an angle to match the street grade characteristic of San Francisco. - Mark Trapp

Calling an exception "up" so you can write "throw up" is not such a bad idea :) - Tudor Bosman

"Paul Buchheit, Case Western Reserve University alumni rower, has teamed up with the Spartan Alumni Rowing Association to present a $100,000 donation to the Cleveland Rowing Foundation (CRF) in CWRU's name. The donation supports the Rivergate Project and will go toward building a permanent boathouse in Cleveland. The boathouse currently used by the CWRU Crew Club is shared with three other universities, a number of high schools, and a handful of adult rowing programs. It is the only boathouse in northeastern Ohio and serves a total of 850 rowers. Although this generous donation will benefit all rowers that use the boathouse, CWRU Crew Club will be at the top of that list." - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

That's one thing I miss now that I've moved away from Rochester, NY area. I loved watching the crew boats crank down the Erie Canal around Pittsford. I wonder if they have those here in Austin, TX ... um, probably not ;) - Susan Beebe

You don't like The Big Lebowski, grilling, Robert Heinlein, software, HHGTG, or building things? - Gabe

Living in a place with lots of ethnic and cultural diversity is great for combating prejudice and dumb expectations. I highly recommend it for everyone. Guam is a good place to start :) - Kevin L

That's so awesome. :-) - Jennifer Taylor

Love the acronym "Western, educated, industrialized, rich, democratic (WEIRD)". :-) - Ruchira S. Datta

:) - Eivind

Just found my funny for today. - April Buchheit from Bookmarklet

"Oh no, I didn't mean your Office -- I meant the good one." I'm glad he recognizes that the other Office is the good one. - Gabe

HA! I actually watched this show for the first time yesterday. I liked the Charlize one. The Michael Cera one was hilarious, but really awkward and uncomfortable at the same time. Are these well rehearsed or do the guests not really know what will be said? - Becca

#Nostalgia - DiazePam

we come in peace :))))))))))) - Circle

"It's encroaching on my map of Louisiana!" - Andy Bakun

Cihangir'deki faşistler izlesin de mizah nasıl yapılır görsün... - Sinan Yuce

That would be spooky and completely disorienting - Deepak Singh

Could I ride my motorcycle? - MiniMage from iPhone

"Have you ever wanted to know whether a mouse is in pain? Of course you have. And now you can, thanks to Langford et al's paper Coding of facial expressions of pain in the laboratory mouse. It turns out that mice, just like people, display a distinctive "Ouch!" facial expression when they're suffering acute pain. It consists of narrowing of the eyes, bulging nose and cheeks, ears pulled back, and whiskers either pulled back or forwards. With the help of a high-definition video camera and a little training, you can reliably and accurately tell how much pain a mouse is feeling. It works for most kinds of mouse pain, although it's not seen in either extremely brief or very long-term pain." - Alexander Kruel from Bookmarklet

Subtitle: It took 19 scientists to figure out that a mouse's face changes when it is in pain. - Jon McAlister

"Three years later, my colleagues and I at Intellectual Ventures have now worked out many of the trickiest aspects of the photonic fence and have constructed prototypes that can indeed identify mosquitoes from many meters away, track the bugs in flight, and hit them with debilitating blasts of laser fire. And we did it without a multimillion-dollar grant from some national Department of Entomological Defense. Nearly everything we used can be purchased from standard electronics retailers or online auction sites. In fact, for a few thousand dollars, a reasonably skilled engineer (such as a typical IEEE Spectrum reader) could probably assemble a version of our fence to shield backyard barbecue parties from voracious mosquitoes. We therefore present the following how-to guide to building a photonic bug killer, in five parts: selecting an appropriate weapon, spotting the bugs, distinguishing friends from foes, getting a pest in your sights, and finally shooting to kill. ... We’ve shot... more... - Paul Buchheit from Bookmarklet

See also http://friendfeed.com/amitp..., http://friendfeed.com/shodan..., and http://friendfeed.com/gabe... - Gabe

LOL!! - April Buchheit

April, it's been an hour. Let him out! - Bruce Lewis

A tip: if you come to Mitsuwa Market in San Jose on Saturday mornig right at 11am when they open Santōka Ramen, you avoid ridiculously long lines. - Michal Cierniak from Bookmarklet

L-O-L - LANjackal

Me love you long time. - Louis Gray