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Good Results of Bad Habits? Research Explains Paradox. There's a lot of research that shows the deleterious health effects of stress. So shouldn't alleviating stress be a net positive for your health? Why, yes, of course. But what if you relieve stress by a lot of bad habits which themselves have bad health effects? Apparently, you still benefit by reducing stress. Advances in psychosomatic medicine have highlighted the link between your mental state and your physical health, but for all of history, human beings have self-medicated their mental health with "bad habits" at the cost of physical health.
comment posted at 3:50 PM on Apr-8-11
comment posted at 4:30 PM on Apr-8-11

Archived Baseball photos from 1917-1956 Today, the Boston Public Library will publish on the Internet the first 100 of a trove of nearly 3,000 rarely seen baseball photographs taken by Leslie Jones, who worked for the Boston Herald and the Boston Traveler from 1917 to 1956. Moments preserved by the shutter and squirreled away in his Dorchester basement, where he kept tens of thousands of images. The Boston Globe has a selection published here. The first batch of snapshots was released to coincide with today’s Opening Day at Fenway Park. Library staff plan to upload several dozen more images each week until all 2,881 photos are online. The project is part of a broader initiative by the library to give the public unfettered access to Jones’s entire archive of tens of thousands of images. He photographed car wrecks and ice-crusted fishing trawlers; shot luminaries like Albert Einstein and Amelia Earhart; and the people of Boston.
comment posted at 6:31 AM on Apr-8-11

MinchinFilter: Storm, the Animated Film, from Tim's 'beat poem' about his confrontation with a credulous fool. (About)
Related: "If You Open Your Mind Too Much Your Brain Will Fall Out"
comment posted at 5:17 AM on Apr-8-11

Acclaimed food and music critic Jonathan Gold was hungry for some Italian. He decided to go to The Olive Garden.
comment posted at 4:17 AM on Apr-7-11

Joseph Stiglitz in May's Vanity Fair ; Inequality: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret. (via)
comment posted at 2:39 PM on Apr-6-11

Guy dances: Dance Battle Submission | Girl dances: Slats Slats Slats.
comment posted at 5:08 AM on Apr-6-11

If you've been to Tokyo anytime in the past few months, you can't have missed seeing the new Tokyo Sky Tree [images | official website]. The tower is not quite finished, but is already the world's tallest tower (and second highest structure after the Burj Khalifa). But that's not what this post is about. "A tower resembling Tokyo Sky Tree -- the world's tallest broadcasting tower currently under construction in Tokyo's Sumida Ward -- has been found depicted on a landscape ukiyo-e woodblock print from the mid-19th century." And they aren't kidding!
comment posted at 4:19 AM on Apr-5-11

Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee -- the cry is always the same: "We want to be free."

Forty-three years ago today, a man was killed while protecting workers' rights to bargain collectively.
comment posted at 4:22 PM on Apr-4-11

"It is no mean achievement that IKEA has continued to embody in the public mind the modernist ideals of simplicity and minimalism yet all the while its total product range has been growing – to the point where, by 2010, it comprised some 12,000 items." Decluttering with IKEA asks: What are we looking for as we wander through IKEA?
comment posted at 4:42 AM on Apr-4-11

Why are we [U.S.A.] so good at developing athletes and so lousy at developing writers? excerpted from sportswriter Bill James's book Solid Fool's Gold: Detours on the Way to Conventional Wisdom. Via: [slate.com]
comment posted at 5:36 AM on Apr-3-11

How Slavery Really Ended in America On May 23, 1861, little more than a month into the Civil War, three young black men rowed across the James River in Virginia and claimed asylum in a Union-held citadel.... [T]the laws of the United States were clear: all fugitives must be returned to their masters. The founding fathers enshrined this in the Constitution; Congress reinforced it in 1850 with the Fugitive Slave Act; and it was still the law of the land — including, as far as the federal government was concerned, within the so-called Confederate states. The war had done nothing to change it. Most important, noninterference with slavery was the very cornerstone of the Union’s war policy. President Abraham Lincoln had begun his inaugural address by making this clear, pointedly and repeatedly. “I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists,” the president said. “I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.”
comment posted at 4:01 PM on Apr-2-11

The Trials of Nunavut: Has Canada created a northern Haiti? Despite hundreds of millions of dollars a year spent via Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the Nunavut government, and many other federal agencies, we have the following situation:
comment posted at 5:57 AM on Apr-2-11
comment posted at 8:16 AM on Apr-2-11

Master painter of the anxious, alienated, mysterious and sublime, George Tooker : August 5, 1920 – March 27, 2011
comment posted at 9:31 AM on Mar-30-11

“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began.”
comment posted at 7:54 PM on Mar-28-11
comment posted at 4:35 AM on Mar-29-11

We all know what happens when you take Garfield out of Garfield, but what happens when you take the punchline panel out of Peanuts? A never-ending morass of melancholy and despair.
comment posted at 8:42 AM on Mar-28-11

OK News Sobering statistics in 2011 America:

One in three families with children relied solely on the mother's earnings in 2010, but women's earnings accounted for only about a third of married couples' income.

Women still earn less — about 77 cents for each male dollar.

comment posted at 8:52 AM on Mar-28-11

"Among the Hagiographers": The Wall Street Journal's review of a new biography questions our supposed deification of Mohandas Gandhi.
comment posted at 7:55 PM on Mar-27-11

"I've been eating two family-size bags [chips/crisps] a day for two years, and little else for the past decade." Via: The Guardian .
comment posted at 12:28 PM on Mar-26-11

A 1961 fashion shoot from Disneyland which was featured in Midwest Magazine, a supplemental newspaper insert in the Chicago Sun-Times.
comment posted at 1:25 PM on Mar-25-11

This is an advice column by an L.A. party girl who likes to talk shit on the internet. E.g. She’ll take your questions about the point of Serious Relationships. And give you advice about your sexual identity. Or tell you about a little something called Prince Charming Disease. There’s some advice about managing your existential crisis too. Even replies to fifteen year old girls on tumblr about their teenage flirting. There is also tons of fun sized advice. In her own summary: “What I [write] may be unfiltered, but it’s still cooked up from the same basic ingredients as the rest of pop culture.” It’s “Shady advice from a raging bitch who has no business answering any of these questions.” It’s Dear Coke Talk.
comment posted at 4:19 AM on Mar-24-11
comment posted at 8:35 AM on Mar-24-11

Looking for something familiar with a twist? Best told from their About Us Page: Vitamin Records was formed in Los Angeles in 1999 to provide music lovers with high quality string quartet, lounge and electronic tributes to major pop and rock artists. Vitamin's mission is to offer fans exciting versions of their favorite songs performed in new musical contexts.
comment posted at 4:39 AM on Mar-24-11

Maine governor Paul LePage has ordered the state's Labor Department to remove a mural he says is too pro-labor. He has also declared several of the building's conference room names to have "one-sided decor." This was reportedly at the behest of anonymous businesses who complained of a pro-labor bias.
comment posted at 2:11 PM on Mar-23-11

The original time-lapse self portrait? And some modern artists: Enchanting self portraits from Iceland's Rebekka Gaudleifs. Nude self portrait (NSFW) from Israeli artist Roni River. Disturbing stories from Canada's projecteye (NSFW) and magical self-portrait from New Hampshire-based Sarah Ann Loreth.
comment posted at 4:28 AM on Mar-22-11

America's greatest president... Buddy Knox. (SLYT)
comment posted at 9:06 PM on Mar-19-11

Chicks Rock! 10 basement youtube unknowns.
comment posted at 9:33 AM on Mar-19-11

Hiding the Real Africa
comment posted at 3:05 PM on Mar-18-11

Comic Punx is a blog devoted to the (mostly hilarious) depictions of punk rock in comic books. It's by Andrew Weiss, who's main blog is Armagideon Time (home of the great Nobody's Favorites.) He's also one of the the Bureau Chiefs behind Fake AP Stylebook (previously) and runs Dateline: Silver Age (previouisly).
comment posted at 4:25 AM on Mar-18-11

"To someone my age (47) Keith Richards (67) in his memoir Life has a kind of rare healthy post-Empire geezer transparency. But for my younger friends, it’s no longer rare; it’s now just the norm. What does shame mean anymore? my friends in their 20s ask. Why in the hell did your boyfriend post a song called 'Suck My Ballz' on Facebook last night? my mom asks. But nothing yet compares to the transparency that Sheen has unleashed in the past two weeks—contempt about celebrity, his profession, the old Empire world order..." Bret Easton Ellis on Charlie Sheen and the worlds of pre- and post-"Empire," i.e., celebrity.
comment posted at 4:02 AM on Mar-17-11

Public Job as Only Route to Middle Class. 'While that might not seem like much, jobs' 'with benefits and higher-than-minimum wages, are considered plum in' the town of Gallipolis a 'depressed corner of southern Ohio. Decades of industrial decline have eroded private-sector jobs here, leaving a thin crust of low-paying service work that makes public-sector jobs look great in comparison.''Now, as Ohio’s legislature moves toward final approval of a bill that would chip away at public-sector unions, those workers say they see it as the opening bell in a race to the bottom. At stake, they say, is what little they have that makes them middle class.'
comment posted at 2:30 PM on Mar-16-11

The Trouble With Autobiography
comment posted at 2:33 PM on Mar-16-11

Taimane's Toccata. Via
comment posted at 4:34 PM on Mar-15-11

Should you be allowed unrestricted knowledge of your own genetic makeup? Or should your doctor be the one to decide how much you can know about your own genes? Currently direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing companies (such as 23andMe) allow consumers to discover which genes they have inherited. But some influential people are arguing that the general public is harmed by the ability to freely access this type of information. The American Medical Association is urging the FDA to make it so that genomic information is only available to a person through a personal physician or medical counselor. As a counterpoint the geneticists at the Genomes Unzipped website provide a six point statement on why People Have A Right To Access Their Own Genetic Information.
comment posted at 7:41 AM on Mar-13-11

Plasticize Me: Will recent advances in human tissue preservation change the way we think about bodies, death, God… and China? [Previously, Via]
comment posted at 7:31 AM on Mar-13-11

The printing of an engineered [non-functional model of a] replacement kidney on stage at a recent TED talk is just the latest in a spate of recent high-profile biomedical engineering headlines.
comment posted at 4:17 AM on Mar-12-11

In 1989, Bill "Calvin and Hobbes" Watterson gave a famous address at Ohio State U.'s Festival of Cartoon Art: "The Cheapening of the Comics" (transcript). Twenty-two years later, successful webcomic artist Dave Kellett (of "Sheldon" about a boy and his non-imaginary talking duck, and "Drive" a sci-fi comic with a convoluted premise and funny aliens) offered a new-generation response at the same venue: "The Freeing of the Comics" (YouTube part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). While Watterson told how and why newspaper comics were (and are) dying, Kellett explained how webcomics can (and do) replace them (although not necessarily for Watterson).
comment posted at 4:38 AM on Mar-12-11

The Crumble Song (Bombay Mix) (SLYT)
comment posted at 11:48 AM on Mar-11-11

Polysyllabic Magical Incantations. For those who enjoy vigorous criticism, a bone-crushing takedown from biologist and blogger PZ Myers of David Brooks' latest foray into belles lettres.
comment posted at 4:53 AM on Mar-5-11

The Christian Science Monitor is a well-reputed newspaper. In October 2008 it announced that it would convert its daily printed report to a weekly edition, and decided to focus primarily on its web site. Traffic rise, money don't.
comment posted at 5:05 PM on Mar-2-11

Will shareholders want to invest in companies that don't have a laser-like focus on profit?" "In one US state, they've just brought in a new law which protects companies who put social responsibility before making money [companies referred to as "benefit corporations"]. . . . Shareholders can't [sue] if the company takes decisions to, for example, protect the environment or buy locally, even if that hurts the bottom line" [7:30 BBC audio report]. One way for entrepreneurs to walk the socially responsible walk is to get certification from B Lab, a non-profit that issues trust marks [the "B Corporation" label] for entire companies, not just individual products: "The B Corporation legal framework bakes your values into the DNA of the company so they can better survive new management, new investors or even new ownership."
comment posted at 4:05 PM on Feb-28-11

Historical currents in American pop music, where nonsense syllables have always held a special place: Blind Blake, in 1929, recorded Diddie Wa Diddie, which Ry Cooder covered in 1974, and which Leon Redbone also covered in 1977. Now, folks, that tune is not to be confused with Bo Diddley's 1956 recording Diddy Wah Diddy, which a young Captain Beefheart covered in 1966, and which was also covered by Aussie garage rockers the Missing Links. Likewise, that tune is not to be confused with a little ditty recorded in 1963 by the Exciters, called Do Wah Diddy Diddy, which was covered with great commercial success in 1964 by British band Manfred Mann.
comment posted at 6:27 AM on Feb-27-11
comment posted at 9:56 AM on Feb-27-11

SEIU past leader speaks on Wisconsin The battle is for the future our our country, the middle class, and public ownership of public goods
comment posted at 2:03 PM on Feb-26-11

"On February 2, 2011, Harper’s Magazine and New York University’s Creative Writing Program held a discussion between Harper’s New Books columnist Zadie Smith and Reviews editor Gemma Sieff. The following is a transcript of their conversation, which covered such topics as the influence of motherhood on female novelists throughout history, the peculiar pitfalls faced by authors who write both fiction and criticism, and the place of Eminem in the hip-hop canon. Smith’s first New Books column for Harper’s appears in the March 2011 issue, now available on newsstands and to subscribers on harpers.org."
comment posted at 3:49 AM on Feb-24-11

Subway Submarines - a photo essay by and interview with industrial art photographer Stephen Mallon on NYC subway cars repurposed into underwater reefs. (via @stevesilberman)
comment posted at 3:56 AM on Feb-23-11

The anchovies are restless. Margaret Atwood, grand dame of Canadian letters, addresses the future of publishing.
comment posted at 11:50 AM on Feb-22-11

A gorgeous series of still, high-resolution panoramic photographs of the City of Light, its landmarks and environs, including Shakespeare and Company, by Arnaud Friche.

If you wish to travel further afield: stunning, super-wide-format photographs of the Alberta Badlands, the Great Wall of China, the floating torii at Miyajima, Bryce Canyon, Burning Man, Burney Falls, BC and much more taken by Brad Templeton, an EFF board member.
comment posted at 3:52 AM on Feb-22-11