Archive for 2009
« Older Entries | Newer Entries »Long Line At The Body-Mod Shop? It’s Okay To Take Cuts
[ 4 Comments ]Posted on May 7, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Thursday, May 7th, 2009Does ANY form of body modification really qualify as normal?
 The Pince-nez Becomes The Pierce-nez |
[Please Note: many of these links are NSFW] We’ve touched on body modification before (see tattoos for teeth, self-embedding, or self-harm coverups), but I must confess my own eccentricities and open-mindedness leave me perplexed as to what I really feel about body modification of any kind. Although I’ve done some self-branding, I would probably never get a tattoo, unless it was for some ritualistic purpose. At the same time I admire nice ink work on my friends. I think most cosmetic surgery is a mistake – we’ve all seen the more dramatic examples – but even more “successful” work leaves me befuddled. For instance, I think almost all the breasts in this cosmetic surgeon’s folio were more attractive before the surgery. So where is “normal” in all of this? I find it hard to believe that a person who endures the discomfort and resulting permanent alteration of getting a tattoo doesn’t have something going on besides merely adorning themselves, but the limited studies that have been done on the topic suggest that although a person with tattoos is perceived negatively by others (especially if they’re a woman) there’s little to support the notion that they’re aberrant; in fact, one of the few comprehensive studies suggests they’re simply risk-taking personality types. And even when referring to less fashion-oriented body-modding like self-cutting, it seems to have a positive side. Personally, I kind of have to draw the line at things like the pierce-nez (even the pince-nez is hard to pull off, unless you’re Morpheus), corset piercings, or head implants (for the record, the guy in that head implant link apparently is a little aberrant, he’s up on teen sex charges). But who am I to judge? If you’re interested in a little DIY modding of your own, check out this Instructables Guide To Elf Ears, or 8 awesome things you can implant into your body. And if you’re not emo enough to really cut yourself, there’s always the on line self-cutting generator.
I Hope You’re Happy Now
[ Comments Off ]Posted on May 6, 2009 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009Because it may be fleeting. Science is proving that giving makes you happy, and that real happiness is temporary, but sustainable.
Are you happy? I occasionally ask people this, and the ones who most emphatically say “yes” often strike me more as pleased, rather than what I’d call “happy”. Pleased with their accomplishments, pleased with their possessions, pleased with their social standing. Is that happiness? I’ve spent much of my life trying to be happy. I don’t know why it’s been such a struggle. I mean, it’s an “Inalienable Right” written into our constitution (“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”), isn’t it? Sometimes I feel the country I live in should actually be called Anhedonia. We talk about happiness all the time, but rarely seem to be experiencing it. Which is why I’m glad that science finally has it figured out. There’s even a How To Be Happy Wiki. I jest a bit (because I’m happy!) but I was recently inspired (ironically, while I was feeling a bit down) by an interview in the Sun Magazine with Barbara Fredrickson, a psychologist in the relatively new field of Positive Psychology. Fredrickson’s research suggests that, as she puts it, “…positive emotions are by nature subtle and fleeting; the secret is not to deny their transience but to find ways to increase their quantity…”, adding that one of the challenges of being happy is to understand that it simply is not a stable, long-lasting state of being. I’m somehow not surprised that science is also proving that giving makes you happy (someone should tell JournalWatch about this, then they’d let us read this article for free!), and I personally try to remember this when I’m in a rut. It works. Which is why I’m also including the little “donate” button below. Trust me, it’ll make you feel better. By the way, are you happy? I’d love to know, and I’d love to know why. Read the rest of this entry »
Best & Worst Green Celebrities
[ 2 Comments ]Posted on May 5, 2009 by admin in Clean & Green, Popular Media
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009Aside from the Jolly Green Giant, which celebrities are really living green?
 Honourable Mention |
A friend of mine told me the other day about how U2 guitarist The Edge is putting celebrity residents of Malibu, CA in a tizzy by building five mansions on a local mountaintop for an estimated $15 million. Although The Edge claims the building project is taking a completely green approach, locals point out that this is irrelevant, as it will create a “permanently scarred mountainside” (I’m giving the “Best Headline of 2009 Award” to the Irish Tribune News for “Richest nimbys in US row with Edge over plans“). So this got me wondering: aside from the Jolly Green Giant and a few hot Sci-Fi chicks, which celebrities are really living green? Well, PETA has once again picked the sexiest vegetarians alive, Natalie Portman has a line of eco-friendly footwear, and a lot of celebs drive green cars. Let’s face it, it’s kind of a given that a celebity’s publicist will make sure that there a lots of green photo ops, like George Clooney posing with his Tango, but how green can you really be if you have to take jets, limos, and security teams with you everywhere you go? The Chicago Tribune has a slide show of not green celebrities, where we learn that Celine Dion, for instance, uses 18,000 gallons of water a day for a home she doesn’t live in, and Treehugger.com informs us that when Woody Harrelson forgets to pack his favorite vegan belt and shoes, he has them flown by jet to Cannes. Our pick for best green celebrity? Green Day’s partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council. You’ve gotta be a little punk to really be green.
Purrfectly Good Reasons To Miss Your Monday Meatings
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on May 4, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion
Monday, May 4th, 2009Our usual Monday morning Flash game distractions, with an especially daunting challenge for our American readers: GEOGRAPHY.
Our Monday Demotivators have previously explored the mystery of why there are so many Flash games in which you do mean things to helpless animals, but you seem to enjoy this stuff so much we’re back with more. First up: Meowcenaries. Like so many of these games, it takes so long to load you’ll be ready to kill by the time it’s ready to play. This game is a little different, by the way, in that the violence is all cat-on-cat. If you’re looking for completely pointless human-inflicted cruelty, you’ll have to go shoot a puppy or something. Don’t get the wrong impression here though, I personally love animals. That’s why this week we’ll give equal time to PETA’s Cooking Mama Kills Animals game, designed to protest Nintendo’s Cooking Mama
It’s Okay To Be A Twitter Quitter
[ 1 Comment ]Posted on May 3, 2009 by admin in Technology
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009The future of the social web? Real time search, recommendation tools, and better aggregation.
My head’s going to explode if one more person tells me why Twitter is the next big thing, or uses the term Google Killer or Facebook Killer. It’s just my opinion, of course, but anybody who claims to know where the web and social networks are headed on a granular level is just regurgitating what they read on tech blogs, or is someone you’d like to make friends with, because they will soon be very, very rich. All the same, this is a pretty interesting time for the web. The obvious trends right now are real time search, social networking, and recommendation tools. When someone makes the simplistic statement that Twitter’s the “next big thing” after Facebook, they’re missing three profoundly important points: 1.) The services are completely different in nature; one is a closed, user-defined network, the other is an outward-flowing stream of information available to anyone. 2.) An estimated 60% of users stop using twitter after one month, and 3). The “next big thing” is already happening. Most would agree that the next big thing is some version of the open web, and if you think about it, that’s what a lot of us are striving for: some kind of reintegration of all the services we’re using. That’s why one of the coolest short-term “Twitter Killers” is making such a splash right now; Seesmic Desktop just added Facebook feeds to the existing tools they had for Twitter. Between Seesmic Desktop and services like NutshellMail, you should at least be able to get your lifestreams under control. I’m personally considering a more effective alternative: unplugging
