Archive | February, 2010

Writer's Block and Rough Drafts

I do a lot of writing, so I’m familiar with the most terrifying of sights: A blank page. You’re in the middle or beginning of writing and you’re stuck about what to do next. You just look at that page and look at it and look at it until you suddenly wake up in a [...]

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Don't Blow Second Chances

I was once in a large, heavy, canoe-like boat with about 6 other people. We had docked next to several similar boats, and as the waves heaved, the boats knocked and banged against each other. While we were waiting to get out, a guy next to me rested his hand over the top edge of [...]

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I posted before about the questions around images of children having sex when the images are purely imaginary. That is, they’re drawn or computer-generated and no child was involved at any stage. I’ve also posted about a guy in Australia who was convicted of owning a cartoon satire of underage Lisa Simpson having sex. Now [...]

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This Is So Secure. Oh Wait, It's Not.

Saw this article today about how “Chip and Pin” cards are coming to the US: — …a new generation of card readers that scan a tiny chip activated by a personal identification number, or PIN. — The article talks about how secure these cards are, admitting the imperfection of any system, no matter how great. [...]

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Air Force Steals Song (maybe); Parentheses Are Abused

NOTICE: Boring post follows. But don’t get too bored. It’s bad for your health. The White Stripes claim that their song was stolen and used in the Air Force ad shown during the Superbowl. Ok. I don’t want to talk about it here (but let me Google that for you). Which makes me wonder: Should [...]

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Measure of Death

If the measure of your life is how many people talk about you when you die (and it obviously is), then aldaily.com shows J.D. Salinger kicking Howard Zinn’s butt. Congrats, J.D.!

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Falling and Condoms

A primer on how to survive falling out of a plane at 6,000 feet. I’m totally gonna try this. Completely unrelated is this article about the new exhibition at the Museum of Sex: “Rubbers: The Life, History & Struggle of the Condom”

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Frown Less, Feel Happier

This study showed that people who were physically unable to frown (due to botox injections) took longer to understand sad or angry statements than they did when they were frownable. Apparently, it’s not a new idea that body and facial movement helps cognition, but this is more pinpointed than other studies. The article goes on [...]

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No-Sex Pregnancy

This is amazing, and I’m just going to assume it’s true because it’s on the Discover blog. The short story: * A 15 year-old girl performs oral sex on her boyfriend. * She and her boyfriend almost immediately get into a knife fight (yes) against her previous boyfriend. She suffers a serious stab wound to [...]

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Mark Twain Doesn't Hold Back

A beautifully seething letter from Mark Twain to a patent medicine salesman. It’s just the kind of thing I’d want to say to the parasites today who try to make money off the ignorant, weak, and desperate. In this case, the salesman was dealing with someone who knew better, and who’d lost two children to [...]

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