Here's a photo tour of a once-opulent building that fell into ruin, but this one has a modern story, and the photographs are all that is left. The 17,000 square-foot Jackling Mansion was built in 1925 in Woodside, California. Steve Jobs lived there for abut ten years, but let it fall into disrepair after 2000. The home maintenance was abandoned because Jobs planned to tear down the house, but then found himself in a long battle with historic preservationists. Meanwhile, photographer Jonathan Haeber documented the home's downfall in pictures. See them at WebUrbanist. Link
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Here's a photo tour of a once-opulent building that fell into ruin, but this one has a modern story, and the photographs are all that is left. The 17,000 square-foot Jackling Mansion was built in 1925 in Woodside, California. Steve Jobs lived there for abut ten years, but let it fall into disrepair after 2000. The home maintenance was abandoned because Jobs planned to tear down the house, but then found himself in a long battle with historic preservationists. Meanwhile, photographer Jonathan Haeber documented the home's downfall in pictures. See them at WebUrbanist. Link
If controlling a laser pointer for your cat to play with is just too much work, you can build a machine to do it for you! Instructables user joe built one because his cat was obsessed with a laser pointer and wanted to play with it 24/7. By following his tutorial, you can make one, too. Link -via Laughing Squid
In celebration of Women's History Month in March, Buzzfeed posted a collection of photographs of women who went to work at factories during World War II, while many men were sent overseas to fight. The pictures were taken for propaganda purposes, but the women in them were real workers. In this photo, Dorothy Cole is plating needles to be used for blood transfusions. Link
(Image credit: Howard R. Hallem/Library of Congress)
When the HMS Titanic sailed on her maiden voyage in April of 1912, anyone who was anyone wanted a ticket. A trip on the huge luxury ship was to die for, especially when you could tell everyone you were on the first one. Some celebrities were even offered free passage for the publicity, but not Milton Snavely Hershey, who lost his deposit -but saved his life.
Read about other celebrities who were supposed to sail on the Titanic, but didn't for a variety of reasons, at Smithsonain. Link
The man behind the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate Bar, Hershey’s Kisses, Hershey’s Syrup, and the Pennsylvania city that bears his name had spent the winter in France and planned to sail home on the Titanic. The Hershey Community Archives has in its collection a $300 check Hershey wrote to the White Star Line in December 1911, believed to be a 10 percent deposit toward his stateroom, according to archivist Tammy L. Hamilton. Fortunately for Hershey, business back home apparently intervened, and he and his wife instead caught a ship that was sailing earlier, the German liner Amerika. The Amerika would earn its own footnote in the disaster, as one of several ships to send the Titanic warnings of ice in its path.
Read about other celebrities who were supposed to sail on the Titanic, but didn't for a variety of reasons, at Smithsonain. Link
Hank, the cat running for U.S. Senate seat from Virginia, is the victim of a mudslinging ad. His name is dragged through the litter box, but he won't respond -because he's a cat. The YouTube video is labelled, "Paid for by Canines for a Feline Free Tomorrow Super PAC," but the account behind the attack ad is a comedy group called The Big Honkin'. Link
According to Wikipedia, Opportunity Cost is "the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value of the next best alternative forgone (that is not chosen)." Metafilter discusses an opportunity cost question that stumps far too many economics students.
See if you can determine the correct answer before you look it up. There are links to more information in the form of pdfs, and a discussion in the comments. The problem seems to raise more questions that it answers. Link
Answer this: "You won a free ticket to see an Eric Clapton concert (which has no resale value). Bob Dylan is performing on the same night and is your next-best alternative activity. Tickets to see Dylan cost $40. On any given day, you would be willing to pay up to $50 to see Dylan (because he's so cool!). Assume there are no other costs of seeing either performer. Based on this information, what is the opportunity cost of seeing Eric Clapton? A. $0 B. $10 C. $40 D. $50"
See if you can determine the correct answer before you look it up. There are links to more information in the form of pdfs, and a discussion in the comments. The problem seems to raise more questions that it answers. Link
The Paranal Observatory is a Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal mountain in the Atacama desert of Chile. There is no light pollution to interfere with stargazing. This video by Christoph Malin and Babak Tafreshi contains 7,500 images that will make you want to pack up and go! Link -via I Am Bored
This gif, which probably originated at 4chan, shows a cat realizing who is actually moving that feather. Oh yes, that's anthropomorphizing, but is certainly what it looks like to us. Let's just hope he never finds out about the laser pointer, because he might never recover! Link
J. V. Muntean makes solid 3D sculptures that are hard to figure out by looking directly at them, but the shadows they throw depict three different images, depending on the angle! This one is called Dancers; you can see quite a few others at his site. And they are for sale, too! Link -Thanks, Brian Hoffer!
As a gift to his girlfriend the history teacher, redditor omnes took Andy Rash's pixel presidents pattern and made each Commander-in-Chief out of bead sprites! Click the Imgur image to super-enlarge it if you want to get a close look. Link
by Murray J. Munro
Department of Linguistics
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia
Winer[1] defines bitching as "incessant complaining about things." Bitching may be overt (the general sort of griping that is easily recognized as bitching by all) or covert (as when someone announces ominously to others that he or she "has a few concerns to air" under the pretext of being polite). It may also be classified as anticipatory ("You’re going to make me crazy!"), post hoc ("Why the hell did you do it that way?") or, in the case of individuals who simply can’t stop themselves from bellyaching, chronic.
Subjects. A gender-balanced pool of participants was recruited from among the full-time faculty at a major Canadian university (58 tenured and 22 untenured). As was expected for university faculty, none showed any signs of normal social skills or mental stability. Two subjects were dropped from the study when it was discovered that they had interests outside their work.
Procedure. The test subjects were exposed to controlled amounts of bitching from two hired confederates within each relevant university department. One confederate from each department bitched at the chairperson during faculty meetings at a self-monitored rate of 1.5 bitches per minute over a period of 6 minutes. The other confederate sent out three bitchy e-mail messages per week to each member of the test group. One message consisted of a screed against the university administration, accusing it of suppressing academic freedom and calling for the resignation of a randomly selected senior administrator; another message was a complaint about university parking policies; and the third was a dire warning about fiscal irresponsibility, impending budget cuts, and the likelihood of layoffs of untenured staff. The impact of exposure was assessed by taking blood pressure and cortisol measurements from each subject at the beginning of each day, and a stool sample at the end.
Analysis of the data from the daily bitchiness inventories revealed a significant positive correlation (r = .72, p < .01) between overall bitchiness and blood pressure levels. What was most striking about the results of the study, however, was the finding that second-hand bitching was even more harmful to the test subjects than their own self-generated whining. Hearing the confederate bitch during faculty meetings and reading bitchy e-mail resulted in significantly higher blood pressure readings, abnormally elevated cortisol levels, and increased anal retentiveness.
Bitchiness levels in the university context are known to exceed those in most other workplace settings (except the civil service) by a factor of almost 3.5279.[2] For this reason the finding of adverse effects of exposure to second-hand bitching is particularly alarming. However, medical professionals have devoted far too much energy to the treatment of the effects of second-hand bitching. Instead of treating the effects, they should be focussing on the root of the problem. We therefore concur with Carper’s[3] view that bitching reduction and cessation programs within the workplace are highly advisable. Although hypnosis and cognitive therapy have been shown to be of limited value in stopping people from bitching, in extreme cases, taping shut the mouth of the offending person may be necessary.
1. "A Few Quibbles About Bitching," B. Winer, Journal of Implied Linguistics, vol. 3, 1973, pp. 45-9802.
2. "Etiology and Epidemiology of Bitching," B. Whimper and B. Snipe, Bitch Studies Quarterly, vol. 5, 1997, pp. 200-302.
3. "Control of Bitching Through Repeated Slapping," B. Carper, Journal of Applied Punishment, vol. 66, 1998, pp. 72-85.
(Title image credit: Flickr user Kyle Bondeson)
Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
Department of Linguistics
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia
Winer[1] defines bitching as "incessant complaining about things." Bitching may be overt (the general sort of griping that is easily recognized as bitching by all) or covert (as when someone announces ominously to others that he or she "has a few concerns to air" under the pretext of being polite). It may also be classified as anticipatory ("You’re going to make me crazy!"), post hoc ("Why the hell did you do it that way?") or, in the case of individuals who simply can’t stop themselves from bellyaching, chronic.
Method
Subjects. A gender-balanced pool of participants was recruited from among the full-time faculty at a major Canadian university (58 tenured and 22 untenured). As was expected for university faculty, none showed any signs of normal social skills or mental stability. Two subjects were dropped from the study when it was discovered that they had interests outside their work.
Procedure. The test subjects were exposed to controlled amounts of bitching from two hired confederates within each relevant university department. One confederate from each department bitched at the chairperson during faculty meetings at a self-monitored rate of 1.5 bitches per minute over a period of 6 minutes. The other confederate sent out three bitchy e-mail messages per week to each member of the test group. One message consisted of a screed against the university administration, accusing it of suppressing academic freedom and calling for the resignation of a randomly selected senior administrator; another message was a complaint about university parking policies; and the third was a dire warning about fiscal irresponsibility, impending budget cuts, and the likelihood of layoffs of untenured staff. The impact of exposure was assessed by taking blood pressure and cortisol measurements from each subject at the beginning of each day, and a stool sample at the end.
(Image credit: Flickr user Alan Turkus)
Results
Analysis of the data from the daily bitchiness inventories revealed a significant positive correlation (r = .72, p < .01) between overall bitchiness and blood pressure levels. What was most striking about the results of the study, however, was the finding that second-hand bitching was even more harmful to the test subjects than their own self-generated whining. Hearing the confederate bitch during faculty meetings and reading bitchy e-mail resulted in significantly higher blood pressure readings, abnormally elevated cortisol levels, and increased anal retentiveness.
(Image credit: Flickr user rachaelvoorhees)
Conclusions
Bitchiness levels in the university context are known to exceed those in most other workplace settings (except the civil service) by a factor of almost 3.5279.[2] For this reason the finding of adverse effects of exposure to second-hand bitching is particularly alarming. However, medical professionals have devoted far too much energy to the treatment of the effects of second-hand bitching. Instead of treating the effects, they should be focussing on the root of the problem. We therefore concur with Carper’s[3] view that bitching reduction and cessation programs within the workplace are highly advisable. Although hypnosis and cognitive therapy have been shown to be of limited value in stopping people from bitching, in extreme cases, taping shut the mouth of the offending person may be necessary.
(Image credit: Flickr user Life As Art)
References
1. "A Few Quibbles About Bitching," B. Winer, Journal of Implied Linguistics, vol. 3, 1973, pp. 45-9802.
2. "Etiology and Epidemiology of Bitching," B. Whimper and B. Snipe, Bitch Studies Quarterly, vol. 5, 1997, pp. 200-302.
3. "Control of Bitching Through Repeated Slapping," B. Carper, Journal of Applied Punishment, vol. 66, 1998, pp. 72-85.
(Title image credit: Flickr user Kyle Bondeson)
_____________________
This article is republished with permission from the November-December 2001 issue of the Annals of Improbable Research. You can download or purchase back issues of the magazine, or subscribe to receive future issues. Or get a subscription for someone as a gift!Visit their website for more research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK.
by Alice Shirrell Kaswell, Improbable Research Staff
Brain damage has its disadvantages, but an American study suggests that it can sometimes give gamblers a winning edge. The researchers take a flier at explaining how and why certain brain lesions might, in some circumstances, help a person triumph over others or over adversity.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, renders its tantalizing, juicy question into lofty academese. The five co-authors, led by Baba Shiv, a marketing professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, ask: “Can dysfunction in neural systems subserving emotion lead, under certain circumstances, to more advantageous decisions?”
The team experimented with people who had abnormalities in the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex, and the right insular or somatosensory cortex. Medically, such abnormalities can be a sign that something’s amiss in how the person handles emotions (and/or vice-versa, the other being a sign of the one).
Each brain-damaged person got a wad of play money and instructions to gamble on 20 rounds of coin tossing (heads-you-win/tails-you-lose, with some added twists). Other people, who had no such brain lesions, got the same amount of money, and the same gambling instructions.
Continue reading
Brain damage has its disadvantages, but an American study suggests that it can sometimes give gamblers a winning edge. The researchers take a flier at explaining how and why certain brain lesions might, in some circumstances, help a person triumph over others or over adversity.
The study, published in the journal Psychological Science, renders its tantalizing, juicy question into lofty academese. The five co-authors, led by Baba Shiv, a marketing professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, ask: “Can dysfunction in neural systems subserving emotion lead, under certain circumstances, to more advantageous decisions?”
The team experimented with people who had abnormalities in the amygdala, the orbitofrontal cortex, and the right insular or somatosensory cortex. Medically, such abnormalities can be a sign that something’s amiss in how the person handles emotions (and/or vice-versa, the other being a sign of the one).
Each brain-damaged person got a wad of play money and instructions to gamble on 20 rounds of coin tossing (heads-you-win/tails-you-lose, with some added twists). Other people, who had no such brain lesions, got the same amount of money, and the same gambling instructions.
(Image credit: Flickr user John Wardell)
The following is an article from the book Uncle John's Heavy Duty Bathroom Reader.
Can a plastic orb connect you to the spirit world and life the future's filmy veil? OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD. Can it at least give good advice? REPLY HAZY, TRY AGAIN. Can a toy company make money selling it? SIGNS POINT TO YES!
A SEEKER BORN EVERY MINUTE
Wartime has long been a boom time for spiritualists, mostly because people long for any news about loved ones a the battlefront. In the 1940s, a woman named "Madame" Mary Carter was capitalizing on that opportunity, plying her trade as a professional clairvoyant in Cincinnati. Her best seance stunt was one she called the Psycho-Slate, consisting of a chalkboard inside a box, with a lid covering it. When a client asked a question, Carter would close the lid, and after a short interval of muffled chalkboard scratching, she would dramatically flip open the lid to reveal the spirit world's answer, written with chalk in a ghostly scrawl. (How she did it remains a mystery.)
TELL A FORTUNE, MAKE A FORTUNE?
Mary Carter had a son named Albert who had little use for any spirits that couldn't be drunk straight from the bottle. When sober, however, he fancied himself an inventor, and seeing the success of his mother's Psycho-Slate, Albert Carter came up with his best idea ever: a portable fortune-telling device that any spiritual seeker could use at any time or place.
It took some time for Carter to work out the details. It had to look mysterious, it had to offer a variety of answers and, because he had no capital to work with, it had to be cheap to build. He went to work using what he knew best -murky liquids in cans and bottles- and developed what he called the Syco-Seer Miracle Home Fortune Teller -a seven inch can-shaped device with a glass window on each end. The inside of the can was divided in two; each half contained a six-side die floating in the dark, viscous liquid (according to some accounts, molasses from his mother's kitchen) and each of the die's six sides was inscribed with a short answer. His reasoning for having two compartments isn't clear, but perhaps it was for efficiency: You could get an answer from one end, then turn it over and get the next answer with little lag time. In 1944 Carter filed for a patent, made a prototype, and began showing it around Cincinnati's toy and hobby shops.
YOU WILL MEET A HELPFUL STRANGER
One of the storekeepers, Max Levinson, not only wanted to stock Syco-Seers, he was very interested in helping Carter produce and market them. Levinson brought in his brother-in-law, Abe Bookman, an engineer from the Ohio Mechanical Institute, who suggested improvements to Carter's design -adding ridges inside the chamber to make the die spin and better randomize the answers. He also hired a designer to give the Syco-Seer's outer label a mystical appeal.
In 1946 the three men formed a partnership, which -in a nod to his two creative partners' first names- Levinson called the Alabe Crafts Corporation. Bookman arranged for a manufacturer and planned for the retail release of the Syco-Seer in 1947. At just about the same time, Albert Carter's alcoholism and self-neglect had finally caught up with him and he died. "While he was sober, he was a genius," Bookman recalled to a Cincinnati Post reporter a few years later. "He stayed in flophouses and was always broke. But I bought every idea he ever had, and that gave him enough to keep going."
I SEE A PATENT IN YOUR FUTURE
Carter's patent came through the following year, and luckily for Bookman and Levinson, he had signed rights over to the partnership before he died. Given new creative freedom to experiment with the design, Bookman began making changes that Carter had resisted.
Continue reading
Can a plastic orb connect you to the spirit world and life the future's filmy veil? OUTLOOK NOT SO GOOD. Can it at least give good advice? REPLY HAZY, TRY AGAIN. Can a toy company make money selling it? SIGNS POINT TO YES!
A SEEKER BORN EVERY MINUTE
Wartime has long been a boom time for spiritualists, mostly because people long for any news about loved ones a the battlefront. In the 1940s, a woman named "Madame" Mary Carter was capitalizing on that opportunity, plying her trade as a professional clairvoyant in Cincinnati. Her best seance stunt was one she called the Psycho-Slate, consisting of a chalkboard inside a box, with a lid covering it. When a client asked a question, Carter would close the lid, and after a short interval of muffled chalkboard scratching, she would dramatically flip open the lid to reveal the spirit world's answer, written with chalk in a ghostly scrawl. (How she did it remains a mystery.)
TELL A FORTUNE, MAKE A FORTUNE?
Mary Carter had a son named Albert who had little use for any spirits that couldn't be drunk straight from the bottle. When sober, however, he fancied himself an inventor, and seeing the success of his mother's Psycho-Slate, Albert Carter came up with his best idea ever: a portable fortune-telling device that any spiritual seeker could use at any time or place.
It took some time for Carter to work out the details. It had to look mysterious, it had to offer a variety of answers and, because he had no capital to work with, it had to be cheap to build. He went to work using what he knew best -murky liquids in cans and bottles- and developed what he called the Syco-Seer Miracle Home Fortune Teller -a seven inch can-shaped device with a glass window on each end. The inside of the can was divided in two; each half contained a six-side die floating in the dark, viscous liquid (according to some accounts, molasses from his mother's kitchen) and each of the die's six sides was inscribed with a short answer. His reasoning for having two compartments isn't clear, but perhaps it was for efficiency: You could get an answer from one end, then turn it over and get the next answer with little lag time. In 1944 Carter filed for a patent, made a prototype, and began showing it around Cincinnati's toy and hobby shops.
YOU WILL MEET A HELPFUL STRANGER
One of the storekeepers, Max Levinson, not only wanted to stock Syco-Seers, he was very interested in helping Carter produce and market them. Levinson brought in his brother-in-law, Abe Bookman, an engineer from the Ohio Mechanical Institute, who suggested improvements to Carter's design -adding ridges inside the chamber to make the die spin and better randomize the answers. He also hired a designer to give the Syco-Seer's outer label a mystical appeal.
In 1946 the three men formed a partnership, which -in a nod to his two creative partners' first names- Levinson called the Alabe Crafts Corporation. Bookman arranged for a manufacturer and planned for the retail release of the Syco-Seer in 1947. At just about the same time, Albert Carter's alcoholism and self-neglect had finally caught up with him and he died. "While he was sober, he was a genius," Bookman recalled to a Cincinnati Post reporter a few years later. "He stayed in flophouses and was always broke. But I bought every idea he ever had, and that gave him enough to keep going."
I SEE A PATENT IN YOUR FUTURE
Carter's patent came through the following year, and luckily for Bookman and Levinson, he had signed rights over to the partnership before he died. Given new creative freedom to experiment with the design, Bookman began making changes that Carter had resisted.
Does this make sense? In order to get a "blue badge," the UK's disabled parking permit, motorists must go to a disability assessment office. In Liverpool, England, that office is on the 13th floor of a parking garage. And the elevator only goes to the 11th floor! Applicants must climb two flights of stairs to reach the office. But after a complaint, officials say the office will be moved.
Link -via Arbroath
Liberal group leader Cllr Steve Radford, who received the complaint from a Tuebrook resident, said: “For the council to say it’s not ideal must be the understatement of the century.”
Graham Footer, of blue badge awareness group Disabled Motoring UK, said the situation was “absolutely unbelievable” but that he was glad “common sense had prevailed”.
It is not yet known where the new assessment office will be located but the move is expected to be within the next four weeks.
A council spokesman said: “We recognise it’s not the most satisfactory arrangement. We will be getting a ground floor office.
Link -via Arbroath
Photographer David C. Shultz attracted the attention of the Emperor penguins he was shooting in Antarctica. The curious birds had to check out the equipment, which led to some funny photo opportunities! See more pictures at Buzzfeed. Link
(Image credit: David C. Shultz)
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