"In the late 1930s psychologist Joseph Barmack of the City College of New York was among the first to study boredom’s basis in a laboratory setting. He proposed that boredom is a sleeplike feeling, and he found that stimulants—a trio of amphetamines, ephedrine and caffeine—reduced reports of fatigue, sleepiness, inattention and boredom during repetitive tasks, such as adding up a series of large numbers. Giving money to his student subjects also seemed to pique their interest, suggesting the tiresome feelings were a combination of low arousal and insufficient motivation." - edythe via Bookmarklet

"Barmack also discovered that providing students with unlimited access to central nervous system stimulants such as cocaine, in addition to vast amounts of money, almost completely elimininated feelings of ennui and lethargy. These students also experienced an increase in libido and subsquent sexual activity. Some of them went on to invent a new form of music based on subtonic and mediant chords accompanied by syncopated drumming, which they curiously referred to as 'rock and roll.'" - Karim

oh, karim. but, hey, money and speed--that's all it takes to remain interested! - edythe

Boredom: BANE of my existence. FriendFeed takes care of a good portion of that for me now, though :) - Kamilah Gill

"There's a 'big gorilla hiding the closet' whose collapse could have a dramatic effect on sea levels, according to Australian researchers. Dr Bradley Opdyke, a paleoceanographer from the Australia National University (ANU) believes the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) could partially collapse within 20 years, resulting in a dramatic jump in sea levels." - Patricia Hanrahan via Bookmarklet

we're doomed. - rambn

""We'll all be rooned," said Hanrahan" :) *ref: well known Australian bush poem http://www.abpa.org.au/Bush_Po... - Patricia Hanrahan

From the article: "In one experiment, one group of students was given a strong assurance that none of the information they divulged on the survey would be revealed. That should make them more forthcoming, right? Actually, the opposite was true. When the issue of confidentiality was raised, participants clammed up. For example, 25 percent of the students who were given a strong assurance of confidentiality admitted to having copied someone else’s homework. Among those given no assurance of confidentiality, more than half admitted to it." - Ginger Makela

Hi, I created a Greasemonkey script to do this job, would you like to try it out and give me some feedbacks? http://thetinybit.com/Project/... - Yu-Jie Lin

Yes, please. I'll grab it and let you know. Thanks! - Chris Baskind

rules of another era - Jinger in love via Bookmarklet

in fact, in belgium, if the unemployed have a half time job, they earn more than doing the same job full time. - Irma Vermaat

in fact, in many cases, being unemployed is better than working your ass off in a dirty boring stressful job. - Irma Vermaat

it's ok for the gays to marry, just not each other - orie

in fact, working is not only about money - Alexey Melchakov

hedgepiglets++ - j1m

awwwww - niniane

heeeeeeeeeee! - edythe

is it not based on security settings of some sort? - Zee from WeDoCreative

You get it from the same company you get your current encription from (like Verisign) except it costs a lot more money. - Chris Nixon

Well, a regular cert more or less says you're talking to the DNS owners of the domain listed in your address bar. Which is a service that ought to be worth about 5 cents. This one says... that you're talking with the organization that is generally known by that name? What *does* stop me from getting a business license for Fiend Feed, Inc. and so on? At some level it seems to be chasing "authenticity" which really means "will pay a bunch of money and/or fill out a bunch of annoying paperwork". - ⓞnor

What I really want is "is widely and unambiguously recognized by the community as the entity associated with that name". Where "the community" is... some big trust network centered on you and people you know? - ⓞnor

this is still far from regular idi... I mean casual consumer :) they shall say how much you are INSURED on your login when you come to this site, and insurance expressed in money, with sum signed by issuer into server side SSL certificate - only then you know for how much you are protected :) names are like talk - cheap :) - silpol

Quite agree - Nick Lewis

"She comes up to the desk and tell me that there is something wrong with the copier. She is holding almost a reams worth of blank paper. When I get to the copy machine I look over it, inspect it, listen for the goblins that live inside and steal your quarters. And everything seems to be copacetic. After what seems like an eternity of conversation (she was one of those people that you have to pry what they want out of them), I finally realize that there is nothing in the copier. She was trying to make copies of nothing. All of her copy stuff was sitting on the counter. Now I can understand one. Maybe even two. But she had so many. Somewhere in the Amazon, rain forests are disappearing. And all because of her copy habits." Classic. - Mark Trapp

Maybe Librarians and Tech Support people should combine our unions, kinda like the AFL-CIO. I think I know the people being described in these stories. - Harvey Simmons

I can see it now. Samuel L. Jackson comes out of the reference section, "Motherfucker. I have had it up to here with all these motherfuckin' snakes in this motherfuckin library." - Slippy Lane

Slippy Lane, nearly fell off my chair reading that! Ginger, did my LIS studies at non-US universities so had to get the qualifications from Australia and Denmark officially recognised by the ALA if I want to get a visa to work in the States. - Patricia Hanrahan

Angry librarians are great. I'm angry-by-proxy, as a patron who gets bloody irritated by people doing stupid things in libraries. Okay, angry patron story: I was using a library a while back and wanted to check a dictionary. Ask man on desk where I could find a dictionary. Response: "On the shelf with the dictionaries". Yes, thank you so much. - Tom Morris

Employees have to choose relocation or severance. - Ginger Makela

Any reason given? - Raoul Pop

Oh, I see... eek. Glad you got out, Ginger. :( - ƃuɐʞ

Can I have the Wii from the office? - Todd Nemet via Alert Thingy

so there is no sacred cow in Google either... our modern corp slang for downsizing is "open sourcing" - wonder how they will translate it on sales/marketing ppl, since all previous head-slashing was majorly in engineering :) - silpol

Hmmm. Modern with a touch of defensive capability? - Ginger Makela via Bookmarklet

I like it - Michael W. May via twhirl

if it has any military capability, it is then only looks-like-mobile-missile-launcher -- there is nothing defensive in standing (erected) building... but somehow I am not freaked over pictures. - silpol

What were they thinking? - Shakeel Mahate

That is awesome. I love that interior space between the silos, that's some big glass! - felix

looking over the other offerings on that site... man, what you get in Denver compared to what I'm getting, not even staying in Manhattan, but moving to Williamsburg? Ouch. Sigh. - felix

http://pixdaus.com/single.php?... - Mitchell Tsai via Bookmarklet

"Prototype contact lenses that include LEDs and circuits could become a tiny personal display. Babak Parviz wears contact lenses. But he's not yet using the new contact lenses he's made in his Seattle laboratory. Containing electronic circuits, they look like something from a science fiction movie. He's now going to add some extremely small light emitting diodes (LEDs), helping turn his prototype contact lenses into a sophisticated personal display - the tiniest one possible." - RAPatton via Bookmarklet

that can't be good for one's health. fascinating though - Cee Bee

Interesting technology... - Daniel Schildt

"Why are you staring into space and chuckling to yourself", asks my wife. "Oh, just checking my email, got some funny ones today", I reply. - Nick Lewis

My two questionable cents: (1) power supply and (2) cooling. Much like current artificial eyes, but way harder to solve. - 9000

"Even though dance is a fundamental form of human expression, neuroscientists have given it relatively little consideration. Recently, however, researchers have conducted the first brain-imaging studies of both amateur and professional dancers. These investigations address such questions as, How do dancers navigate though space? How do they pace their steps? How do people learn complex series of patterned movements? The results offer an intriguing glimpse into the complicated mental coordination required to execute even the most basic dance steps." - edythe via Bookmarklet

Tag: Must Read. - Russellreno

I doubt that anyone who was arguing for creationism would come up with most of those 15 reasons. If they can come up with those reasons, which are all pseudo-sophisticated, and arguing for creationism they are playing devil's advocate. The creationist argument is more like "the bible told me so," or "didn't you read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe?" - RAPatton

The wheel chairs start the Peachtree Road Race Friday morning. - Russellreno via Bookmarklet

How long before taking vitamins and exercising in a gym is mandatory, too? - 9000

здравствуйте. ваш звонок очень важен для вас. пожалуйста, оставайтесь на линии. - дефектные роботы

"ваш звонок очень важен для нас. пожалуйста, останьтесь в нашей светлой памяти" - Кот Шредингера

http://www.clichequest.com/ind... - растворение личности

@sohin, боян, я сегодня уже постил - ß.Èíòåðíåò

@dma, я утебя этот линк и увидел) - растворение личности

"Of course, you wouldn’t want to overdo it. Unlike the lambrusco, which you can drink straight out of the fridge, you want to take the zinfandel out and let it sit for half an hour or, if you’re starting from scratch, just stick it in the fridge to cool for 45 minutes before drinking. If chilled but not ice cold, you’ve got yourself one refreshing beverage. The same lighter-bodied principle holds for pinot noir. I recently tried an experiment with a 2004 Calera Mount Harlan Cuvée. I had a glass at room temperature, which was about 72 degrees, and the wine was flat — as weighty as a flannel shirt in a sauna. But after chilling for about half an hour, the wine was set free, offering a pretty cinnamon scent and lithe fruit." - edythe via Bookmarklet

My father has been doing this for years. I used to scoff at him until I tried a pinot noir at a bbq - now I think, what a sensible man. - Patricia Hanrahan

yuvi, soon enough you shall be able to do whatever you please. i hope. - edythe

yeah, rose has become cool again. - edythe

i used to love drinking rose when it 1st caught on,yummy. All foods and beverages should be enjoyed in what ever way user wants. Silly traditions should be ignored when it comes to food. - Mark Forman

An excellent advice on the subject - Alex

second this :) - silpol

Neither I nor my wife are big fans of public displays of affection. - Akiva Moskovitz

My wife does not like public displays of affection. On the other hand, I had called in a favor at my homecoming game to proclaim my love on an electronic scoreboard in front of 15,000 when I was in high school. - RAPatton

@Lucretia Pruitt-See great tips on FF- I'm going to institute that at once with Thomas Hawk!!:-" - Mrsth

@Patricia Hanrahan- That just makes my eyes well up!! - Mrsth

wow. it's so awesome to read everyone's views on this. :) lucretia, that's excellent. and, harvey, you and your wife rock. i think maybe that's a good goal for parents who want to keep the romance alive: make the children go "ewww." yeah, Lisa, ditto on the plaintive sigh. - edythe