Good Reads
- Thread starter Laurel
- Start date
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/01/article-2483580-18BA6659000005DC-363_634x463.jpg
Settle back into a cosy chair and switch on the TV at 5.30pm tonight for a nine-hour knitting extravaganza.
Norway is live streaming the prime-time hobby show in their attempt to air more sedate programs for their audience and British viewers will be able to tune in too.
In an attempt to beat the world 'sheep to sweater' record, a team of Norwegian knitters will shear a ewe on live TV before spinning its wool and knitting a jumper in the shortest possible time.
The previous record, held by Australia, is four hours and 51 minutes.
Viewers can build up to the thrilling challenge by watching four hours of knitting know how before the record attempt.
'We'll just broadcast as long as they keep going. It should be a hit.' Rune Møklebust, head of programming at Norwegian public service broadcaster NRK said.
Settle back into a cosy chair and switch on the TV at 5.30pm tonight for a nine-hour knitting extravaganza.
Norway is live streaming the prime-time hobby show in their attempt to air more sedate programs for their audience and British viewers will be able to tune in too.
In an attempt to beat the world 'sheep to sweater' record, a team of Norwegian knitters will shear a ewe on live TV before spinning its wool and knitting a jumper in the shortest possible time.
The previous record, held by Australia, is four hours and 51 minutes.
Viewers can build up to the thrilling challenge by watching four hours of knitting know how before the record attempt.
'We'll just broadcast as long as they keep going. It should be a hit.' Rune Møklebust, head of programming at Norwegian public service broadcaster NRK said.
- read the full article Knitwork television: Norwegian TV broadcasting nine-hour live knitting show (and you've already missed the start!) (from The Mail Online)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://guernica.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/guernica-crowd.jpg
Each year, Drake pays Alan and his team 750 dollars to kidnap him, drive him to a remote motel room, take away his phone and wallet and clothing, and leave him stranded there, bound, gagged, blindfolded, and naked.
Each year, Drake pays Alan and his team 750 dollars to kidnap him, drive him to a remote motel room, take away his phone and wallet and clothing, and leave him stranded there, bound, gagged, blindfolded, and naked.
- read the full article Millions of Americans Are Strange (from Guernica Magazine)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18k2upwojdgezjpg/original.jpg
Well, this is upsetting. According to a new study, people can't tell the difference between quotes from British "lad mags" and interviews with convicted rapists. And given the choice, men are actually more likely to agree with the rapists.
The University of Surrey reports on the study (conducted jointly with researchers at Middlesex University), to be published in the British Journal of Psychology. Researchers gave a group of men and women quotes from the British lad mags FHM, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo, as well as excerpts from interviews with actual convicted rapists originally published in the book The Rapist Files. The participants couldn't reliably identify which statements came from magazines and which from rapists — what's more, they rated the magazine quotes as slightly more derogatory than the statements made by men serving time for raping women. The researchers also showed both sets of quotes to a separate group of men — the men were more likely to identify with the rapists' statements than the lad mag excerpts. The only slightly bright spot in the study: when researchers randomly (and sometimes incorrectly) labelled the quotes as coming from either rapists or magazines, the men were more likely to identify with the ones allegedly drawn from mags. At least they didn't want to agree with rapists.
[...]
Middlesex University generously provided us with a copy of the quotes the researchers used. See if you can tell the difference between the rapists and the lad mags (answers can be found in the article linked below):
Well, this is upsetting. According to a new study, people can't tell the difference between quotes from British "lad mags" and interviews with convicted rapists. And given the choice, men are actually more likely to agree with the rapists.
The University of Surrey reports on the study (conducted jointly with researchers at Middlesex University), to be published in the British Journal of Psychology. Researchers gave a group of men and women quotes from the British lad mags FHM, Loaded, Nuts and Zoo, as well as excerpts from interviews with actual convicted rapists originally published in the book The Rapist Files. The participants couldn't reliably identify which statements came from magazines and which from rapists — what's more, they rated the magazine quotes as slightly more derogatory than the statements made by men serving time for raping women. The researchers also showed both sets of quotes to a separate group of men — the men were more likely to identify with the rapists' statements than the lad mag excerpts. The only slightly bright spot in the study: when researchers randomly (and sometimes incorrectly) labelled the quotes as coming from either rapists or magazines, the men were more likely to identify with the ones allegedly drawn from mags. At least they didn't want to agree with rapists.
[...]
Middlesex University generously provided us with a copy of the quotes the researchers used. See if you can tell the difference between the rapists and the lad mags (answers can be found in the article linked below):
1. There's a certain way you can tell that a girl wants to have sex . . . The way they dress, they flaunt themselves.
2. Some girls walk around in short-shorts . . . showing their body off . . . It just starts a man thinking that if he gets something like that, what can he do with it?
3. A girl may like anal sex because it makes her feel incredibly naughty and she likes feeling like a dirty slut. If this is the case, you can try all sorts of humiliating acts to help live out her filthy fantasy.
4. Mascara running down the cheeks means they've just been crying, and it was probably your fault . . . but you can cheer up the miserable beauty with a bit of the old in and out.
5. What burns me up sometimes about girls is dick-teasers. They lead a man on and then shut him off right there.
6. Filthy talk can be such a turn on for a girl . . . no one wants to be shagged by a mouse . . . A few compliments won't do any harm either . . . ‘I bet you want it from behind you dirty whore' . . .
7. You know girls in general are all right. But some of them are bitches . . . The bitches are the type that . . . need to have it stuffed to them hard and heavy.
8. Escorts . . . they know exactly how to turn a man on. I've given up on girlfriends. They don't know how to satisfy me, but escorts do.
9. You'll find most girls will be reluctant about going to bed with somebody or crawling in the back seat of a car . . . But you can usually seduce them, and they'll do it willingly.
10. There's nothing quite like a woman standing in the dock accused of murder in a sex game gone wrong . . . The possibility of murder does bring a certain frisson to the bedroom.
11. Girls ask for it by wearing these mini-skirts and hotpants . . . they're just displaying their body . . . Whether they realise it or not they're saying, ‘Hey, I've got a beautiful body, and it's yours if you want it.'
12. You do not want to be caught red-handed . . . go and smash her on a park bench. That used to be my trick.
13. Some women are domineering, but I think it's more or less the man who should put his foot down. The man is supposed to be the man. If he acts the man, the woman won't be domineering.
14. I think if a law is passed, there should be a dress code . . . When girls dress in those short skirts and things like that, they're just asking for it.
15. Girls love being tied up . . . it gives them the chance to be the helpless victim.
16. I think girls are like plasticine, if you warm them up you can do anything you want with them.
2. Some girls walk around in short-shorts . . . showing their body off . . . It just starts a man thinking that if he gets something like that, what can he do with it?
3. A girl may like anal sex because it makes her feel incredibly naughty and she likes feeling like a dirty slut. If this is the case, you can try all sorts of humiliating acts to help live out her filthy fantasy.
4. Mascara running down the cheeks means they've just been crying, and it was probably your fault . . . but you can cheer up the miserable beauty with a bit of the old in and out.
5. What burns me up sometimes about girls is dick-teasers. They lead a man on and then shut him off right there.
6. Filthy talk can be such a turn on for a girl . . . no one wants to be shagged by a mouse . . . A few compliments won't do any harm either . . . ‘I bet you want it from behind you dirty whore' . . .
7. You know girls in general are all right. But some of them are bitches . . . The bitches are the type that . . . need to have it stuffed to them hard and heavy.
8. Escorts . . . they know exactly how to turn a man on. I've given up on girlfriends. They don't know how to satisfy me, but escorts do.
9. You'll find most girls will be reluctant about going to bed with somebody or crawling in the back seat of a car . . . But you can usually seduce them, and they'll do it willingly.
10. There's nothing quite like a woman standing in the dock accused of murder in a sex game gone wrong . . . The possibility of murder does bring a certain frisson to the bedroom.
11. Girls ask for it by wearing these mini-skirts and hotpants . . . they're just displaying their body . . . Whether they realise it or not they're saying, ‘Hey, I've got a beautiful body, and it's yours if you want it.'
12. You do not want to be caught red-handed . . . go and smash her on a park bench. That used to be my trick.
13. Some women are domineering, but I think it's more or less the man who should put his foot down. The man is supposed to be the man. If he acts the man, the woman won't be domineering.
14. I think if a law is passed, there should be a dress code . . . When girls dress in those short skirts and things like that, they're just asking for it.
15. Girls love being tied up . . . it gives them the chance to be the helpless victim.
16. I think girls are like plasticine, if you warm them up you can do anything you want with them.
- read the full article Can You Tell The Difference Between A Men's Magazine And A Rapist? (from Jezebel)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfuture/624_351/images/live/p0/1k/vb/p01kvbx3.jpg
In human life, smells play a variety of fundamental roles. From birth, infants can distinguish the scent of their mother's breasts. Since failure to feed can ultimately result in dehydration or death, some researchers think that the ability to identify those odours may itself be critical in promoting feeding-related behaviours. And as adults, certain body odours can determine a person’s attractiveness. Smells also have a direct influence on our emotions. Stephen Warrenburg, a researcher at International Flavors and Fragrances, a New York-based company, has found test subjects associate odours with particular feelings. For example, both clementine and vanilla are reported as pleasing, but while clementine is thought of as stimulating, vanilla apparently makes people feel more relaxed.
Smell is important to various other animals too. What is less well known is that the intentional creation of aromas is not a uniquely human trait. There is at least one other animal that practices the ancient art of perfume mixing, and perhaps the most disgusting is the male greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata.
Colonies of up to 60 of these bats are found from northern Argentina to southern Mexico. These are divided into a number of harems, each consisting of one male and multiple females, and controlling a territory of between one and two square metres. Males without partners roost on the outskirts of the harems, waiting to surreptitiously mate with females.
In human life, smells play a variety of fundamental roles. From birth, infants can distinguish the scent of their mother's breasts. Since failure to feed can ultimately result in dehydration or death, some researchers think that the ability to identify those odours may itself be critical in promoting feeding-related behaviours. And as adults, certain body odours can determine a person’s attractiveness. Smells also have a direct influence on our emotions. Stephen Warrenburg, a researcher at International Flavors and Fragrances, a New York-based company, has found test subjects associate odours with particular feelings. For example, both clementine and vanilla are reported as pleasing, but while clementine is thought of as stimulating, vanilla apparently makes people feel more relaxed.
Smell is important to various other animals too. What is less well known is that the intentional creation of aromas is not a uniquely human trait. There is at least one other animal that practices the ancient art of perfume mixing, and perhaps the most disgusting is the male greater sac-winged bat, Saccopteryx bilineata.
Colonies of up to 60 of these bats are found from northern Argentina to southern Mexico. These are divided into a number of harems, each consisting of one male and multiple females, and controlling a territory of between one and two square metres. Males without partners roost on the outskirts of the harems, waiting to surreptitiously mate with females.
- read the full article The bats that mix nature’s grossest perfume (from The BBC)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://s.newsweek.com/sites/www.newsweek.com/files/styles/article_large/public/2013/11/04/kidnap1.jpg
They call it ala kachuu, or "grab and run." In Kyrgyzstan, as many as 40% of ethnic Kyrgyz women are married after being kidnapped by the men who become their husbands, according to a local NGO. Two-thirds of these bride kidnappings are non-consensual—in some cases, a "kidnapping" is part of a planned elopment—and while the practice has been illegal since 1994, authorities largely look the other way. Typically, a would-be groom gathers a group of young men, and together they drive around looking for a woman he wants to marry. The unsuspecting woman is often literally dragged off the street, bundled into the car and taken straight to the man's house—where frequently the family will have already started making preparations for the wedding.
Once the girls are inside the kidnapper’s home, female elders play a key role in persuading her to accept the marriage. They try to cover the girl’s head with a white scarf, symbolizing that she is ready to wed her kidnapper. After hours of struggle, around 84% of kidnapped women end up agreeing to the nuptials. (The rest manage to get back home.) The kidnapee's parents often also pressure the girl, as once she has entered her kidnapper’s home she is considered to be no longer pure, making it shameful for her to return home. In order to avoid disgrace, many women tend to remain with their kidnappers.
They call it ala kachuu, or "grab and run." In Kyrgyzstan, as many as 40% of ethnic Kyrgyz women are married after being kidnapped by the men who become their husbands, according to a local NGO. Two-thirds of these bride kidnappings are non-consensual—in some cases, a "kidnapping" is part of a planned elopment—and while the practice has been illegal since 1994, authorities largely look the other way. Typically, a would-be groom gathers a group of young men, and together they drive around looking for a woman he wants to marry. The unsuspecting woman is often literally dragged off the street, bundled into the car and taken straight to the man's house—where frequently the family will have already started making preparations for the wedding.
Once the girls are inside the kidnapper’s home, female elders play a key role in persuading her to accept the marriage. They try to cover the girl’s head with a white scarf, symbolizing that she is ready to wed her kidnapper. After hours of struggle, around 84% of kidnapped women end up agreeing to the nuptials. (The rest manage to get back home.) The kidnapee's parents often also pressure the girl, as once she has entered her kidnapper’s home she is considered to be no longer pure, making it shameful for her to return home. In order to avoid disgrace, many women tend to remain with their kidnappers.
- read the full article Grab and Run: Kyrgyzstan's Bride Kidnappings (from Newsweek)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
Congratulations on your new body part, everybody!
http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/11/131105081352.jpg
Two knee surgeons at University Hospitals Leuven have discovered a previously unknown ligament in the human knee. This ligament appears to play an important role in patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.
Despite a successful ACL repair surgery and rehabilitation, some patients with ACL-repaired knees continue to experience so-called 'pivot shift', or episodes where the knee 'gives way' during activity. For the last four years, orthopedic surgeons Dr Steven Claes and Professor Dr Johan Bellemans have been conducting research into serious ACL injuries in an effort to find out why. Their starting point: an 1879 article by a French surgeon that postulated the existence of an additional ligament located on the anterior of the human knee.
That postulation turned out to be correct: the Belgian doctors are the first to identify the previously unknown ligament after a broad cadaver study using macroscopic dissection techniques. Their research shows that the ligament, which was given the name anterolateral ligament (ALL), is present in 97 per cent of all human knees. Subsequent research shows that pivot shift, the giving way of the knee in patients with an ACL tear, is caused by an injury in the ALL ligament.
Two knee surgeons at University Hospitals Leuven have discovered a previously unknown ligament in the human knee. This ligament appears to play an important role in patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tears.
Despite a successful ACL repair surgery and rehabilitation, some patients with ACL-repaired knees continue to experience so-called 'pivot shift', or episodes where the knee 'gives way' during activity. For the last four years, orthopedic surgeons Dr Steven Claes and Professor Dr Johan Bellemans have been conducting research into serious ACL injuries in an effort to find out why. Their starting point: an 1879 article by a French surgeon that postulated the existence of an additional ligament located on the anterior of the human knee.
That postulation turned out to be correct: the Belgian doctors are the first to identify the previously unknown ligament after a broad cadaver study using macroscopic dissection techniques. Their research shows that the ligament, which was given the name anterolateral ligament (ALL), is present in 97 per cent of all human knees. Subsequent research shows that pivot shift, the giving way of the knee in patients with an ACL tear, is caused by an injury in the ALL ligament.
- read the full article New Ligament Discovered In the Human Knee (from Science Daily)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
It’s not easy to export the American recovery movement — even to a nation that needs it.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3037/2548398155_1b63d506bf.jpg
image from flickrolf (Flickr)
It used to be a common sight in Moscow: two men, swaying on a corner and holding up three fingers in the air. A bottle of vodka cost 3 rubles back then, which meant that if there were three of you, it was an easy, cheap split. The three-finger salute was the universal sign that you were looking for investment partners.
Today, with vodka costing significantly more than it used to, the three-way split is not the standby it once was. But you can still see Russia’s drinking problem everywhere—in its cities and especially in its rural, less populated provinces. A 2011 report from the World Health Organization estimated that Russians were drinking an average of about 4 gallons of pure alcohol per year—about 70 percent more than their American counterparts. In 2009, the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that more than half of all Russians dying between the ages of 15 and 54 were dying from excessive drinking. More than half the children in a typical Russian orphanage, another study found, suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome.
[...]
But in Russia, despite the passionate efforts of its proponents, AA has struggled for acceptance as a legitimate treatment method and has largely failed to catch on. Since 1987, when an Episcopal priest from New York convened some of Russia’s very first AA meetings, only about 400 groups have formed in the entire country—a tiny number, when you consider that there are about 1,600 such groups in the Boston metropolitan area alone.
Why has Russia proven so inhospitable to AA’s ideas? Certainly, the history of distrust between our two countries hasn’t helped. But there have been other obstacles as well—some religious, some medical, some cultural. It turns out that what looks like a benign and effective social movement in one country can start to look very different when it arrives on a new shore. Together, the difficulties AA has faced in Russia point to a fundamental obstacle to transplanting ideas across borders: Some solutions, even successful ones, may not be nearly as universal as the problems they are supposed to solve.
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3037/2548398155_1b63d506bf.jpg
image from flickrolf (Flickr)
It used to be a common sight in Moscow: two men, swaying on a corner and holding up three fingers in the air. A bottle of vodka cost 3 rubles back then, which meant that if there were three of you, it was an easy, cheap split. The three-finger salute was the universal sign that you were looking for investment partners.
Today, with vodka costing significantly more than it used to, the three-way split is not the standby it once was. But you can still see Russia’s drinking problem everywhere—in its cities and especially in its rural, less populated provinces. A 2011 report from the World Health Organization estimated that Russians were drinking an average of about 4 gallons of pure alcohol per year—about 70 percent more than their American counterparts. In 2009, the British medical journal The Lancet estimated that more than half of all Russians dying between the ages of 15 and 54 were dying from excessive drinking. More than half the children in a typical Russian orphanage, another study found, suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome.
[...]
But in Russia, despite the passionate efforts of its proponents, AA has struggled for acceptance as a legitimate treatment method and has largely failed to catch on. Since 1987, when an Episcopal priest from New York convened some of Russia’s very first AA meetings, only about 400 groups have formed in the entire country—a tiny number, when you consider that there are about 1,600 such groups in the Boston metropolitan area alone.
Why has Russia proven so inhospitable to AA’s ideas? Certainly, the history of distrust between our two countries hasn’t helped. But there have been other obstacles as well—some religious, some medical, some cultural. It turns out that what looks like a benign and effective social movement in one country can start to look very different when it arrives on a new shore. Together, the difficulties AA has faced in Russia point to a fundamental obstacle to transplanting ideas across borders: Some solutions, even successful ones, may not be nearly as universal as the problems they are supposed to solve.
- read the full article Why Russia’s drinkers resist AA (from The Boston Glone)
ryan8558
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Jan 19, 2011
- Posts
- 10,254
101 Objects that Made America - Smithsonian Magazine
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/101-Objects-that-Made-America-228072031.html
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/101-Objects-that-Made-America-228072031.html
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
Occasional Loneliness Is a Near-Universal Feeling, Therapists Say, That Individuals Can Identify and Work to Change
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2683/4363078780_25e634dd16.jpg
image from Jack Zalium (Flickr)
Evolutionary psychologists say the lonely feeling developed to alert humans—social animals who rely on each other to survive—that they were too close to the perimeter of the group and at risk of becoming prey.
Spending time alone is more fun when it is by choice. When it is the result of loss, separation or isolation, people are likely to experience it as loneliness. Homesickness, bullying, empty-nesting, bereavement and unrequited love are all variations on the theme. Loneliness isn't depression, which is a lasting feeling of deep sadness and hopelessness and should be treated by a professional.
[...]
To stop "alone" from sliding into "lonely," start by recognizing that you are the one telling yourself that you feel lonely. "You are creating the experience of loneliness by how you are thinking and behaving," Ms. Mackler says.
http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2683/4363078780_25e634dd16.jpg
image from Jack Zalium (Flickr)
Evolutionary psychologists say the lonely feeling developed to alert humans—social animals who rely on each other to survive—that they were too close to the perimeter of the group and at risk of becoming prey.
Spending time alone is more fun when it is by choice. When it is the result of loss, separation or isolation, people are likely to experience it as loneliness. Homesickness, bullying, empty-nesting, bereavement and unrequited love are all variations on the theme. Loneliness isn't depression, which is a lasting feeling of deep sadness and hopelessness and should be treated by a professional.
[...]
To stop "alone" from sliding into "lonely," start by recognizing that you are the one telling yourself that you feel lonely. "You are creating the experience of loneliness by how you are thinking and behaving," Ms. Mackler says.
- read the full article When Being Alone Turns Into Loneliness, There Are Ways to Fight Back (from The Wall Street Journal)
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
The way people move can influence the likelihood of an attack by a stranger. The good news, though, is that altering it can reduce the chances of being targeted.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfuture/624_351/images/live/p0/1k/y0/p01ky052.jpg
How you move gives a lot away. Maybe too much, if the wrong person is watching. We think, for instance, that the way people walk can influence the likelihood of an attack by a stranger. But we also think that their walking style can be altered to reduce the chances of being targeted.
A small number of criminals commit most of the crimes, and the crimes they commit are spread unevenly over the population: some unfortunate individuals seem to be picked out repeatedly by those intent on violent assault. Back in the 1980s, two psychologists from New York, Betty Grayson and Morris Stein, set out to find out what criminals look for in potential victims. They filmed short clips of members of the public walking along New York's streets, and then took those clips to a large East Coast prison. They showed the tapes to 53 violent inmates with convictions for crimes on strangers, ranging from assault to murder, and asked them how easy each person would be to attack.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/wwfuture/624_351/images/live/p0/1k/y0/p01ky052.jpg
How you move gives a lot away. Maybe too much, if the wrong person is watching. We think, for instance, that the way people walk can influence the likelihood of an attack by a stranger. But we also think that their walking style can be altered to reduce the chances of being targeted.
A small number of criminals commit most of the crimes, and the crimes they commit are spread unevenly over the population: some unfortunate individuals seem to be picked out repeatedly by those intent on violent assault. Back in the 1980s, two psychologists from New York, Betty Grayson and Morris Stein, set out to find out what criminals look for in potential victims. They filmed short clips of members of the public walking along New York's streets, and then took those clips to a large East Coast prison. They showed the tapes to 53 violent inmates with convictions for crimes on strangers, ranging from assault to murder, and asked them how easy each person would be to attack.
- read the full article How the way we walk can increase risk of being mugged (from The BBC)
Colonel Hogan
Madness
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2005
- Posts
- 18,372
Both of my two pre-nups stipulated that if the marriage did not work out, my wife would be returned to the same street corner from which she was abducted.
It just seemed like the right thing to do.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
That's fair enough.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://instinctmagazine.com/sites/instinctmagazine.com/files/images/blog_posts/Jonathan%20Higbee/2013/08/09/joshlogan.png
The first thing cops noticed was the footprints. They began near the entrance to the expensive oceanfront townhouse: size-12 sneaker outlines, stamped in blood.
They wound up a flight of stairs to the second floor, across smooth white marble tiles, and around rich leather furniture. They led through the kitchen and past a bloody butcher knife hastily hidden under a throw rug. As police traced the prints to their source, the marks grew bloodier — like a grisly puzzle slowly revealing itself.
Finally, the footprints disappeared up another staircase toward the bedroom. When Broward County Sheriff's deputies pushed open the door, they were brushed back by the fetid stench of death. Samuel Del Brocco lay on the marble in a pool of gore. The pudgy 60-year-old had been stabbed half a dozen times in the chest.
[...]
It would be three years before detectives would catch a break in the September 2010 Pompano Beach killing. When they did, they would stumble onto a story even darker than Del Brocco's murder — something more akin to the twisted tales of the Marquis de Sade. It is the story of a porn star stud with an endless appetite for sex, drugs, and human growth hormone; the teenage beauty queen he tortured; and a dead millionaire's dark double life. It's a story of lust, greed, and the most misdirected of American dreams.
The first thing cops noticed was the footprints. They began near the entrance to the expensive oceanfront townhouse: size-12 sneaker outlines, stamped in blood.
They wound up a flight of stairs to the second floor, across smooth white marble tiles, and around rich leather furniture. They led through the kitchen and past a bloody butcher knife hastily hidden under a throw rug. As police traced the prints to their source, the marks grew bloodier — like a grisly puzzle slowly revealing itself.
Finally, the footprints disappeared up another staircase toward the bedroom. When Broward County Sheriff's deputies pushed open the door, they were brushed back by the fetid stench of death. Samuel Del Brocco lay on the marble in a pool of gore. The pudgy 60-year-old had been stabbed half a dozen times in the chest.
[...]
It would be three years before detectives would catch a break in the September 2010 Pompano Beach killing. When they did, they would stumble onto a story even darker than Del Brocco's murder — something more akin to the twisted tales of the Marquis de Sade. It is the story of a porn star stud with an endless appetite for sex, drugs, and human growth hormone; the teenage beauty queen he tortured; and a dead millionaire's dark double life. It's a story of lust, greed, and the most misdirected of American dreams.
- read the full article Porn Star John Snavely Murders Millionaire (from Miami New Times)
lovetoread
hello daddy
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2001
- Posts
- 42,978
Ah that story is shown frequently on the ID channel, though ever since South Park, Thumper calls it murder porn.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
lol!!
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://beranger.org/ludditus/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/outgesourct.gif
The word "shitstorm" was institutionalized in the latest edition of Duden, the most-respected German-language dictionary, which was published in July. The English profanity had previously spread through the ranks of German society, even working its way into German Chancellor Angela Merkel's vocabulary. She employed the word in a public meeting — Germanized in pronunciation to "shitschturm" — to describe the eurozone crisis.
The English compound word "flashmob" also was given its own listing in the Duden earlier this year. With terms like "flashmob" and the newly adopted "shitstorm," the German language society Verein Deutsche Sprache criticized the German language bible for diluting the language and incorporating too many Anglicisms. The society awarded Duden its "adulterator of the language" title, with the society’s chairman stating, "Whoever suggests the ridiculous and phoney Anglicism soccer as a replacement for Fussball richly deserves this [award]."
In today's globalized world, languages freely borrow from each other, and with German and English stemming from the same family of languages, cross-pollination occurs with particular ease, both in adopting full words into the lexicon and creating hybrids. In fact, a language term exists for this blending of English words into German words, phrases, or sentences: "Denglisch."
"Denglisch" itself is a "Denglisch" word — how meta! — fusing the words Deutsche and English and sandwiching in a "c" for Germanic effect, though "Denglish" is also common spelling. The unofficial sub-language of Denglisch has been evolving for quite some time, though "Denglisch" itself is not an official term and carries a number of meanings. It can refer to the practice of adding a German twist to English words, as the case would be with "babysitten" for "to babysit." It also can allude to the superfluous use of pure English words and phrases in German, or the practice of misappropriating or creating fake English wor
The word "shitstorm" was institutionalized in the latest edition of Duden, the most-respected German-language dictionary, which was published in July. The English profanity had previously spread through the ranks of German society, even working its way into German Chancellor Angela Merkel's vocabulary. She employed the word in a public meeting — Germanized in pronunciation to "shitschturm" — to describe the eurozone crisis.
The English compound word "flashmob" also was given its own listing in the Duden earlier this year. With terms like "flashmob" and the newly adopted "shitstorm," the German language society Verein Deutsche Sprache criticized the German language bible for diluting the language and incorporating too many Anglicisms. The society awarded Duden its "adulterator of the language" title, with the society’s chairman stating, "Whoever suggests the ridiculous and phoney Anglicism soccer as a replacement for Fussball richly deserves this [award]."
In today's globalized world, languages freely borrow from each other, and with German and English stemming from the same family of languages, cross-pollination occurs with particular ease, both in adopting full words into the lexicon and creating hybrids. In fact, a language term exists for this blending of English words into German words, phrases, or sentences: "Denglisch."
"Denglisch" itself is a "Denglisch" word — how meta! — fusing the words Deutsche and English and sandwiching in a "c" for Germanic effect, though "Denglish" is also common spelling. The unofficial sub-language of Denglisch has been evolving for quite some time, though "Denglisch" itself is not an official term and carries a number of meanings. It can refer to the practice of adding a German twist to English words, as the case would be with "babysitten" for "to babysit." It also can allude to the superfluous use of pure English words and phrases in German, or the practice of misappropriating or creating fake English wor
- read the full article The strange rise of Denglisch (from The Week)
trysail
Catch Me Who Can
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2005
- Posts
- 25,593
California Valley Solar Ranch: What for $1.24 Taxpayer Billion?
by Jerry Graf
...The huge California Valley Solar Ranch central-station solar plant is apparently now at “full power” thanks to a loan guarantee from the U.S. taxpayers of $1,237,000,000. Information regarding this project has been published here by Earthtechling, and also here, by the U.S. Department of Energy.
In an earlier article by Eric Lipton and Clifford Krauss in the New York Times entitled A Gold Rush of Subsidies in Clean Energy Search, the full cost of the project was established as $1.6 billion. Lipton and Krauss indicate:
The project is also a marvel in another, less obvious way: Taxpayers and ratepayers are providing subsidies worth almost as much as the entire $1.6 billion cost of the project. Similar subsidy packages have been given to 15 other solar- and wind-power electric plants since 2009.
The government support — which includes loan guarantees, cash grants and contracts that require electric customers to pay higher rates — largely eliminated the risk to the private investors and almost guaranteed them large profits for years to come. The beneficiaries include financial firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, conglomerates like General Electric, utilities like Exelon and NRG — even Google.
The government support — which includes loan guarantees, cash grants and contracts that require electric customers to pay higher rates — largely eliminated the risk to the private investors and almost guaranteed them large profits for years to come. The beneficiaries include financial firms like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, conglomerates like General Electric, utilities like Exelon and NRG — even Google.
-Read the full article at: http://www.masterresource.org/2013/11/california-valley-solar-ranch-boondoggle/ (Master Resource blog)
Last edited:
JohnnySavage
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2008
- Posts
- 44,472
What a terrible day so far! I wake up, read the Good Reads, and discover Dancing Bear is FAKE!!!
Shattered.
Shattered.
trysail
Catch Me Who Can
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2005
- Posts
- 25,593
They got it wrong. The word should be Deutschlish, not Denglisch.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
Searching for the ultimate example of recycling? Look in the mirror.
http://static.nautil.us/1626_bc573864331a9e42e4511de6f678aa83.png
You may think of yourself as a highly refined and sophisticated creature—and you are. But you are also full of discarded, rejected, and recycled atomic elements. Don’t worry, though—so is almost everyone and everything else.
Carbon: Your inky nails
Look at one of your fingernails. Carbon makes up half of its mass, and roughly one in eight of those carbon atoms recently emerged from a chimney or a tailpipe. Coal-fired power plants, petroleum-guzzling cars, and kitchen gas stoves release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Each of those waste molecules is a carbon atom borne on two atomic wings of oxygen. Fossil-based carbon dioxide molecules that are not soaked up by the oceans or stranded in the upper atmosphere are eventually captured by plants, shorn of their oxygen wings, and woven into botanical sugars and starches. Eventually, some of them end up in bread, sweets, and vegetables, while others help form carbon-rich animal tissues, finding their way into meat and dairy products. Historically, atmospheric carbon dioxide was mainly replenished by volcanoes, forest fires, and biotic respiration. Today, one quarter of atmospheric CO2 is the result of fossil fuel combustion, whether it rose from smokestacks or was displaced from the oceans. (When fossil-fuel CO2 dissolves into ocean water, it displaces already-dissolved carbon dioxide derived from natural sources.) And because all of the carbon in your body derives from ingested organic matter, which in turn obtains it from the atmosphere, your fingernails and the rest of the organic matter in your body are built, in part, from emissions.
Radioactive Carbon-14: Your pearly whites
When you smile, the gleam of your teeth obscures a slight glow from radioactive waste. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, atmospheric testing of thermonuclear weapons scattered so much radioactive carbon-14 into the atmosphere that it contaminated virtually every ecosystem and human. Several thousand unstable radiocarbon atoms explode within and among your cells every second as their unstable nuclei undergo spontaneous radioactive decay. Some are the natural products of cosmic rays that can turn atmospheric nitrogen into carbon-14, while others result from the decay of unstable mineral elements that are found in soil. But many of them represent the echoes of thermonuclear airbursts from the Cold War, finding their way into our water supply and meals. If they happen to disintegrate within your DNA, they can damage your genes. And many of them are bound up in your teeth. Unlike most of the atoms in your body, those embedded in your strong, stable tooth enamel have been with you ever since you ingested them through your umbilical cord and your infant feeding. If you were born during the early 1960s, you have more nuclear waste in your teeth than if you were born later, when soils and oceans had had time to bury radioactive atoms. In fact, forensic scientists use the proportion of bomb carbon in tooth enamel to determine the age of unidentified human remains.
http://static.nautil.us/1626_bc573864331a9e42e4511de6f678aa83.png
You may think of yourself as a highly refined and sophisticated creature—and you are. But you are also full of discarded, rejected, and recycled atomic elements. Don’t worry, though—so is almost everyone and everything else.
Carbon: Your inky nails
Look at one of your fingernails. Carbon makes up half of its mass, and roughly one in eight of those carbon atoms recently emerged from a chimney or a tailpipe. Coal-fired power plants, petroleum-guzzling cars, and kitchen gas stoves release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Each of those waste molecules is a carbon atom borne on two atomic wings of oxygen. Fossil-based carbon dioxide molecules that are not soaked up by the oceans or stranded in the upper atmosphere are eventually captured by plants, shorn of their oxygen wings, and woven into botanical sugars and starches. Eventually, some of them end up in bread, sweets, and vegetables, while others help form carbon-rich animal tissues, finding their way into meat and dairy products. Historically, atmospheric carbon dioxide was mainly replenished by volcanoes, forest fires, and biotic respiration. Today, one quarter of atmospheric CO2 is the result of fossil fuel combustion, whether it rose from smokestacks or was displaced from the oceans. (When fossil-fuel CO2 dissolves into ocean water, it displaces already-dissolved carbon dioxide derived from natural sources.) And because all of the carbon in your body derives from ingested organic matter, which in turn obtains it from the atmosphere, your fingernails and the rest of the organic matter in your body are built, in part, from emissions.
Radioactive Carbon-14: Your pearly whites
When you smile, the gleam of your teeth obscures a slight glow from radioactive waste. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, atmospheric testing of thermonuclear weapons scattered so much radioactive carbon-14 into the atmosphere that it contaminated virtually every ecosystem and human. Several thousand unstable radiocarbon atoms explode within and among your cells every second as their unstable nuclei undergo spontaneous radioactive decay. Some are the natural products of cosmic rays that can turn atmospheric nitrogen into carbon-14, while others result from the decay of unstable mineral elements that are found in soil. But many of them represent the echoes of thermonuclear airbursts from the Cold War, finding their way into our water supply and meals. If they happen to disintegrate within your DNA, they can damage your genes. And many of them are bound up in your teeth. Unlike most of the atoms in your body, those embedded in your strong, stable tooth enamel have been with you ever since you ingested them through your umbilical cord and your infant feeding. If you were born during the early 1960s, you have more nuclear waste in your teeth than if you were born later, when soils and oceans had had time to bury radioactive atoms. In fact, forensic scientists use the proportion of bomb carbon in tooth enamel to determine the age of unidentified human remains.
- read the full article You Are Made of Waste (from Wired)
trysail
Catch Me Who Can
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2005
- Posts
- 25,593
We are, after all, stardust.
Laurel
Kitty Mama
- Joined
- Aug 27, 1999
- Posts
- 20,695
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2013/11/06/health/06well_beer/06well_beer-tmagArticle.jpg
Dr. Castillo isn’t a runner, but a skier and a tennis player, who came to the topic after his brother challenged him about the wisdom of having a beer after a morning of strenuous skiing in 2006. When he couldn’t find any research to back him up, he did his own.
In his study, he had 16 physically active men run on a treadmill for an hour in a heated room, then either drink water or 660 milliliters of beer (about two cans) with a standard 4.5 percent alcohol content. The result: A moderate amount of beer after exercise didn’t adversely affect these young athletes’ recovery.
“We found that this amount of beer is as effective as water to recovery from exercise,” he said of the study, which he presented at the 2011 European Conference on Nutrition.
A recent study published in The International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism provides some further reassurance. Researchers at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, had seven men exercise vigorously until they lost about 2 percent of their body mass. Afterward, they had one of four fluid replacements: light beer (2.3 percent alcohol content), light beer with added salt, standard beer (4.8 percent alcohol content) or standard beer with salt. The salt was added because of the known benefits of electrolytes for rehydration.
Dr. Castillo isn’t a runner, but a skier and a tennis player, who came to the topic after his brother challenged him about the wisdom of having a beer after a morning of strenuous skiing in 2006. When he couldn’t find any research to back him up, he did his own.
In his study, he had 16 physically active men run on a treadmill for an hour in a heated room, then either drink water or 660 milliliters of beer (about two cans) with a standard 4.5 percent alcohol content. The result: A moderate amount of beer after exercise didn’t adversely affect these young athletes’ recovery.
“We found that this amount of beer is as effective as water to recovery from exercise,” he said of the study, which he presented at the 2011 European Conference on Nutrition.
A recent study published in The International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism provides some further reassurance. Researchers at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, had seven men exercise vigorously until they lost about 2 percent of their body mass. Afterward, they had one of four fluid replacements: light beer (2.3 percent alcohol content), light beer with added salt, standard beer (4.8 percent alcohol content) or standard beer with salt. The salt was added because of the known benefits of electrolytes for rehydration.
- read the full article Runners Who Love Beer (from The New York Times)
Phelia
in a submarine
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2008
- Posts
- 7,432
Awesome.
http://cdn.theawl.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/4203350202_89b48ed91f_b-e1320757593681.jpg
The theory that the McRib’s elusiveness is a direct result of the vagaries of the cash price for hog meat in the States is simple: in this thinking, the product is only introduced when pork prices are low enough to ensure McDonald’s can turn a profit on the product. The theory is especially convincing given the McRib's status as the only non-breakfast fast food pork item: why wouldn't there be a pork sandwich in every chain, if it were profitable?
Fast food involves both hideously violent economies of scale and sad, sad end users who volunteer to be taken advantage of. What makes the McRib different from this everyday horror is that a) McDonald’s is huge to the point that it’s more useful to think of it as a company trading in commodities than it is to think of it as a chain of restaurants b) it is made of pork, which makes it a unique product in the QSR world and c) it is only available sometimes, but refuses to go away entirely.
...
In [the McDonald's] test kitchen, we learn, a sign hangs that reads “It’s Not Real Until It’s Real in the Restaurants,” reminding chefs and cooks that their creations, no matter how tasty and portable they may be, must be scalable—above all else.
When the Time reporter visited the kitchen, Chef Coudreaut was cooking a dish that involved celery root—a fresh-tasting root that chefs love for making purees in the fall and winter. Chef Coudreaut proves to be quite a talented cook, but Time notes that “there is literally not enough celery root grown in the world for it to survive on the menu at McDonald’s—although the company could change that since its menu decisions quickly become global agricultural concerns.”
- read the full article A Conspiracy of Hogs: The McRib as Arbitrage (The Awl)
The theory that the McRib’s elusiveness is a direct result of the vagaries of the cash price for hog meat in the States is simple: in this thinking, the product is only introduced when pork prices are low enough to ensure McDonald’s can turn a profit on the product. The theory is especially convincing given the McRib's status as the only non-breakfast fast food pork item: why wouldn't there be a pork sandwich in every chain, if it were profitable?
Fast food involves both hideously violent economies of scale and sad, sad end users who volunteer to be taken advantage of. What makes the McRib different from this everyday horror is that a) McDonald’s is huge to the point that it’s more useful to think of it as a company trading in commodities than it is to think of it as a chain of restaurants b) it is made of pork, which makes it a unique product in the QSR world and c) it is only available sometimes, but refuses to go away entirely.
...
In [the McDonald's] test kitchen, we learn, a sign hangs that reads “It’s Not Real Until It’s Real in the Restaurants,” reminding chefs and cooks that their creations, no matter how tasty and portable they may be, must be scalable—above all else.
When the Time reporter visited the kitchen, Chef Coudreaut was cooking a dish that involved celery root—a fresh-tasting root that chefs love for making purees in the fall and winter. Chef Coudreaut proves to be quite a talented cook, but Time notes that “there is literally not enough celery root grown in the world for it to survive on the menu at McDonald’s—although the company could change that since its menu decisions quickly become global agricultural concerns.”
- read the full article A Conspiracy of Hogs: The McRib as Arbitrage (The Awl)
JohnnySavage
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2008
- Posts
- 44,472
An ovoid of some unknown meat product, squished and bound together by transfats and coated in a delicious sauce made of chemicals and preservatives.
The McRib is what makes America great!
The McRib is what makes America great!
