garykoelling

"What was most perplexing of all to me was that, although I was certain that the ads contained Chinese phrases and sentences, every Chinese person to whom I showed them emphatically maintained that they could not understand a single word."

PITCHF/x and SportVU data analysis shows...

1. Pitch framing, once nebulously understood, can be quantifiably measured and taught.

2. The secret dead spot on the NBA floor, along with the hidden advantage of low percentage, long range shots. [Bonus Kirk Goldsberry analysis of Golden State Warriors' coach's claim that Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry are "the greatest shooting backcourt in the history of the game."]

Further analysis can be found by combing through the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.

On the 15 May, Max Fisher of the Washington Post penned an article titled A fascinating map of the world's most and least racially tolerant countries. Fisher surmised that Anglo and Latin American countries are the most tolerant, linking racism to economic freedom based off of a study by two Swedish economists. Siddhartha Mitter responds, who, in The Cartography of Bullshit writes, "Although the results don't pass the sniff test in the first place, I took a look at the data as well, in an effort to identify the exact problems at play..."

"It turns out that the entire exercise is a methodological disaster, with problems in the survey question premise and operationalization, its use by the Swedish economists and by Fisher, and, as an inevitable result, in Fisher's additional interpretations. The two caveats that Fisher offered in his post – first, that survey respondents might be lying about their racial views, and second, that the survey data are from different years, depending on the country – only scratch the surface of what is basically a crime against social science perpetrated in broad daylight. They certainly weren't enough to stop Fisher from compiling and posting his map, even though its analytic base is so weak as to render its message fraudulent."

Bootstrapping the Industrial Age So you survived the apocalypse. Here's what would it take to rebuild the world.

We've read about Florentijn Hofman's giant rubber duck before (previously), and it made it's way earlier this week to Hong Kong to spread joy :D

Well, unfortunately, the duck was also viciously murdered (warning: may be graphic to younger viewers), and many already blame chinese mainlanders for it.

o<

A large portion of scientific research is publicly funded. So why do only the richest consumers have access to it?

The Myth of Nazi Efficiency

Running in the The Times Educational Supplement (1), between 1971 and 1972 the comic strip Wokker featured a strange wooden bird who commentates sarcastically on the world, and who can talk to animals, inanimate objects and readers alike.
Here are some galleries and a short history by the co-creator Tony Earnshaw, also a painter and maker of boxes.
His funeral in 2001 was slightly unconventional.

The project centers on nine women in the feminist lesbian porn industry who are recorded for a 24-hour period, with 10-second blips of their everyday lives playing out in five-minute intervals. What's revealed is an intimate portrait of a marginalized community opening up about sex, gender politics, depression, and their daily grind in a way that's downright real.

Guest Photographers or: Why You Should Have an Unplugged Wedding

Pro photographer Corey Ann explains, with examples, what causes her so many problems in getting the wedding photographs her clients have paid her for: their guests.

Pushing in front of her, standing in the frame of posed photos, flooding pictures with flash, and above all assuming that their invitation entitles them to take precedence over a photographer who is being expected to get a perfect record of the couple's perfect day.

Her proposal: politely, but firmly, ask your guests to enjoy the highlights of the wedding themselves, and leave taking photographs of those parts to the photographer.

Street Children - Can you look them in the eye?

How syphilis took Europe by storm during the 1490s, and the far reaching effects it's had ever since

On March 26th, 1827 Ludwig Van Beethoven died in Vienna. The day after, a twelve year old boy took a lock of his hair as a souvenir. 167 years later the hair was sold at an auction in London. Its new owners were two Americans, Ira Brilliant and Che Guevera. Between those dates the lock of hair undertook an extraordinary historical odyssey. From hand to hand, from country to country, and from century to century. This is the story of that journey.

Please note the site is haunted - and make sure you summon the ghost.

Mooseheart Orphanage, 1948 A haunting image of children's faces from the Mooseheart Orphanage, 1948. The photo was taken by Stanley Kubrick for the June 8th, 1948 edition of Look.

John Merritt, Wood Carver. SLYT

A New Theory of PTSD and Veterans: Moral Injury But as clergy and good clinicians have listened to more stories like these, they have heard a new narrative, one that signals changes to the brain along with what in less spiritually challenged times might be called a shadow on the soul. It is the tale of disintegrating vets, but also of seemingly squared-away former soldiers and spit-shined generals shuttling between two worlds: ours, where thou shalt not kill is chiseled into everyday life, and another, where thou better kill, be killed, or suffer the shame of not trying. There is no more hellish commute.

'I can't forgive myself ... and the people who can forgive me are dead.' Beyond PTSD to 'Moral Injury'.
TIME Magazine writes: Moral Injury: "A Profound Sense of Alienation and Abject Shame". The VA writes about Moral Injury And The Context Of War.
For Troops Needing Psychological Help, Asking Can Be the Toughest Hurdle.

It Takes Two + I'm Your Pusher + Some Nights = Some Nights I'm Your Pusher (Lloyd).

Nicholas J. Johnson is a no good dirty rotten cheat. So when he invites you to play an incredible new game that he's invented, you probably shouldn't come...

The sweetest chopper on the planet is the "Red Baron", a custom-built motorcycle powered by a 9-cylinder radial aircraft engine.

Little pug puppy dries off after a bath! (slyt)

That's it. That's the whole thing.