First time poster, not first time pinkhead. :D

 

 

 

as you probably can see, it's pretty fried in the ends. but still pink, so it's alright.

Tags: directions, flamingo pink
Current Location: basement
Current Mood: creative

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/N5phJZ7P730/first-person-shooter.html

As the spouse of a former competitive Quake champ, I laughed pretty goddamned hard at this video about life with "First Person Shooter Disease."

Living with First-Person Shooter Disease (via Scalzi)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/qiIA86bm46U/baby-pictures-in-los.html

Edinburgh psych researcher Richard Wiseman and team left a load of wallets lying around with various contents, trying to see if there was a correlation between, say, baby pictures or cards indicating charitable giving and the rate at which wallets are returned. It turns out that people in Edinburgh (and maybe everyone) have a high likelihood of returning wallets with baby pictures, but are much less likely to return the wallets of charitable givers:

The baby photograph wallets had the highest return rate, with 88 per cent of the 40 being sent back. Next came the puppy, the family and the elderly couple, with 53 per cent, 48 and 28 respectively. At 20 per cent and 15, the charity card and control wallets had the lowest return rates.

Overall, 42 per cent of the wallets were posted back -- more than the team had anticipated. "We were amazed by the high percentage of wallets that came back," said Dr Wiseman.

Scientists have also found evidence for a baby instinct in brain scanning experiments. A recent study at the University of Oxford examined how people responded when they were shown photographs of baby or adult faces.

Want to keep your wallet? Carry a baby picture (via Derren Brown)

(Image: 6. Wallet, a Creative Commons Attribution licensed photo from Saad.Akhtar's Flickr stream</a>)

Like son...

Like mother...

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/2jJtUvokhXU/high-ranking-insuran.html

Ross sez, "A high-placed insider (ex VP of PR at Cigna) describes the machinations the insurance industry has used to keep us from getting a decent health care system."

This guy literally wrote the talking-points memo that the anti-universal-health-care crowd uses. He had a conversion experience and has now come clean. Remarkable.

BILL MOYERS: Was [Michael Moore's SICKO] true? Did you think it contained a great truth?

WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely did.

BILL MOYERS: What was it?

WENDELL POTTER: That we shouldn't fear government involvement in our health care system. That there is an appropriate role for government, and it's been proven in the countries that were in that movie.

You know, we have more people who are uninsured in this country than the entire population of Canada. And that if you include the people who are underinsured, more people than in the United Kingdom. We have huge numbers of people who are also just a lay-off away from joining the ranks of the uninsured, or being purged by their insurance company, and winding up there.

And another thing is that the advocates of reform or the opponents of reform are those who are saying that we need to be careful about what we do here, because we don't want the government to take away your choice of a health plan. It's more likely that your employer and your insurer is going to switch you from a plan that you're in now to one that you don't want. You might be in the plan you like now.

But chances are, pretty soon, you're going to be enrolled in one of these high deductible plans in which you're going to find that much more of the cost is being shifted to you than you ever imagined...

WENDELL POTTER: And [Wall Street thinks] that this company has not done a good job of managing medical expenses. It has not denied enough claims. It has not kicked enough people off the rolls. And that's what-- that is what happens, what these companies do, to make sure that they satisfy Wall Street's expectations with the medical loss ratio.

Wendell Potter on Bill Moyers (Thanks, Ross!)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/MOQL0ZuRw5E/sarkozy-brings-back.html

The French "Three Strikes" law is back on -- a law that can punish you for being accused of copyright infringement by cutting off your internet connection, fining you, and putting you in prison. It also criminalizes offering free internet access because pirates might use it.

Ed Felten nailed it: this is like a law that lets publishers take away all reading material from you and everyone who lives in your house if you're accused (without evidence) of infringing on three books.

Not content to let the idea die, President Nicolas Sarkozy's administration reworked the law in hopes of making it amenable to the Council--instead of HADOPI deciding on its own to cut off users on the third strike, it will now report offenders to the courts. A judge can then choose to ban the user from the Internet, fine him or her €300,000 (according to the AFP), or hand over a two-year prison sentence.

Those who are merely providing an Internet connection to dirty pirates can be fined €1,500 and/or receive a month-long temp ban from the online world. (A group of French hackers has already begun to work on software that cracks the passwords on locked WiFi networks so that there's an element of plausible deniability when law enforcement tries to go after home network owners.)

French "3 strikes" law returns, now with judicial oversight! (Thanks, Jeremie!)

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/RtetUBpKtMk/attention-philanthro.html

Alex from WorldChanging sez,

We've just released our 2009 "Attention Philanthropy" grants, our effort to shine a light on awesome work that's undeservedly obscure. 100 nominators from around the world helped us find amazing projects in fields as diverse as human rights, urban planning, citizen media and renewable energy. There's a day's worth of interesting reading just going down the whole list, but even a quick visit will probably turn you on to some cool things you didn't know existed.

Attention philanthropy is a gift of notice. In a noisy world, deluged in advertising, overrun with PR flacks and crowded with the superficial, one of the biggest barriers to success for a small, good idea or noble enterprise can simply be getting noticed in the first place.

Here's your chance to do a simple, good thing. If the work you find on these pages inspires you, learn more. Visit their websites, contribute to their projects and, above all, help us spread the word far and wide.

Attention Philanthropy 2009 (Thanks, Alex!)

For awhile now, I've been using my lunch break for a catnap...
Recently I started driving to the nearby park and napping on the grass in the shade.

The grass is usually just a little wet, it smells so strongly.

Friday, I was pouring my coffee.. there was a momentary waft of my coffee, Deb's toast.
I was listening to "The Origin of Species" chapter 9: Hybridism.

Today Andy came to town. We walked from my place to the AMC in the sunshine.
The afternoon was bright and comfortably hot.
The air smelled like hot asphalt, hot pavement, hot concrete, hot cars.
Downtowns are so grey & glaring in this weather.

Growing up, that was a hot summer day treat....
A summer matinee.
Soda, candy, air conditioning.
I felt nostalgia but I didn't know it doing that today.

Sitting in the chilled recirculated air, sippin on smoothies, laughing and talking with our hands,.. another hot walk back home.

My life is filled with good days.
Im worried about what is going on at work,.. money isn't as loose as I'd like it... my license may be suspended,... my car needs lots of expensive maintenance... shit isn't perfect.
Life isn't perfect,.. but maybe Im lucky because no one in my life was stupid enough to tell me it would, could or should be.

People make my life so incredible.
Thanks.

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/tQq0yiF2gMI/hmm-maybe-that-wasnt.html

Susannah Breslin is a guestblogger on Boing Boing. She is a freelance journalist who blogs at Reverse Cowgirl and is at work on a novel set in the adult movie industry.

UFC fighter Frank Mir exhibits the unfortunate consequences of what happens when you step into the ring with six-foot-three, 265-pound human monster Brock Lesnar after last night's UFC 100 heavyweight bout.

If UFC 100 represents mainstream, the world has changed.

Brock Lesnar, the former World Wrestling Entertainment fighter and current UFC heavyweight champion, battered Frank Mir in a second-round knockout to set aside a festering year of bitterness.

With a likely million more watching on pay-per-view, Lesnar gave the 11,000-plus a doubly obscene hand gesture and stood firm as the disdain continued.

"Lesnar, St-Pierre claim victories at UFC 100." (Image credit: John Locher/Associated Press.)