WE ARE OVERSTOCKED! All these links must go, go, go!
A very passionate and articulate defense of science both as a route to knowledge and a path to wonder. I love this kind of science writing. It captures the magic and poetry of science as well as the practical and real world benefits of it. I am a little leery of the author’s defense of science against a supposedly siege of opposition from the arts and humanities. I am sure there are Luddites in the A&H world just as there are Philistines in the sciences. But war? I’m not seeing it.
2. Ten Lies Your Depression Tells You
Well. I guess I don’t have to write that “lies depression tells you” article after all. Someone beat me to it, and did a pretty good job of it too. Everything in that list is something I have felt about myself, some more, some less. Depression is s terrific liar because it does not even have to convince you of anything. It just makes you chemically incapable of believing certain things (regardless of logic, evidence, or probability) and leaves you to figure out the justifications yourself. Well done.
A fairly good use of a simple setup and some quite simple CGI to tell a story much bigger than its budget. Abe’s mouth doesn’t even move (or blink) when he talks. A good simple robot model with a few places of articulation, an actress to do the screaming et al, and some solid voice acting for Abe our terribly confused and broken robot, and you have a dramatic little scene that is both chilling and tragic. I have the urge to set the whole thing to “Fix You” by Coldplay, though. But that’s just me.
4. An extremely offensive song
Brace yourself folks. This one has to be heard to be believed. Get ready for a concentrated dose of Mad Men era sexism sung by a suave, slick chauvinist.
Isn’t it off how sometimes something is so awful you just have to share it? Sharing that video is the Internet equivalent of saying “Smell this!”. The basic gist of the song is “Don’t you dare be anything less than perfectly sexy, ‘little girl’, or your husband will start sleeping around and maybe even leave you, and it will be all your fault and just what you deserve. ”
5. Powerful poetry about OCD and love.
Wow. There is so much amazing poetry being made by young people these days! My generation didn’t produce many poets. I suppose poetry was just too earnest and eager for us jaded types. These young people are screaming out their feelings and making themselves heard in the world by telling their stories, and I only wish I had that kind of courage. The ending of that poem makes me want to cry, it’s so sad. But I can see the girl who left him’s point. Living with OCD cannot be easy. Of course, our poet has no choice.
6. A Buzzfeed list of interesting English on Chinese signs
Here are some of my all time faves.
I hear that this is where Doctor Who shops for condoms.
As you can see, the more surreal, the more I like them. The truly great mistranslations are like a kind of minimalist poetry conjuring bizarre realms with just a few bewildering words.
And on that note… my all time favorite, bar none.
The rallying cry of… something.
The Buzzfeed people say they meant to say “dried food”, and I bet that’s what the Chinese said. But as for the translation…. tell me how those concepts connect.
I am both in awe of and jealous of that guy’s style. All the did was talk to the camera, just like I do, but he turned it into so much more just by being so stylish, witty, and concise. That is exactly the sort of content I hope to produce some day. It is perfect YouTube content. Short, dense, fun, and hilarious, all while making a serious point. I love hate envy admire you, John Corvino!
8. Why We Are Lonely, animated.
And speaking of the concision, I love this piece because it makes its point so fluently. The voiceover and animation act together in such a smooth and precise way that it really makes what is a fairly information dense presentation flow like an easy river. As for the problem it describes, I am wondering if this is more a problem for the generation after mine. I made a solid rule in my late twenties that I would never, ever, ever prefer Internet company over the real thing. And I think that keeps things contained.
A brilliant and biting piece of satire of a certain kind of clueless and entitled hipster.
Yowch! Great work. They really sell how horribly tone-deaf and elitist these people are, and manage to structure the bit to keep that proverbial ball in the air by having each successive revelation be just that little bit more awful.
Oh. And supposedly, there are people actually, unironically doing exactly what is being parodied here.
Now I don’t know about you, but I would be a lot less likely to donate to a homeless person with a super fancy sign like that. He’s clearly not broke.
10. Why Be Good?
And finally, La vidéo d’aujourd’hui faite par moi.
It presents some ideas I only recently put down in words in response to this blog post from my friend and late night conversation partner Bill “The Wizard” Honeywill.
They are all ideas that have been floating around in the primordial stew of my brain for quite a while now, but this was the first time articulating them.
And like I say in the vid, there are doubtless countless more practical, rational, self-oriented reasons why it is better to be a good person.
I would love to make a big list of them all.
Maybe you can help?