Weekend Reading

Another shitty week of news. A racist President, Nazis, terror attack in Barcelona. It’s not always easy steering the line through knowledge and despair. As ever, I’m staying away from such news here. Not because I don’t care, but because I need an outlet where it isn’t always front and centre, all the damn time.

  • A theory of jerks

    Picture the world through the eyes of the jerk. The line of people in the post office is a mass of unimportant fools; it’s a felt injustice that you must wait while they bumble with their requests.
    No YOU didn’t have any problem ‘picturing the world’ like that… JERK!

  • Going Up

    Is mindfulness meditation a capitalist tool or a path to enlightenment? Yes It’s hard to put your finger on the point when the Western stereotype of Buddhist meditation flipped.
    As a regular meditator my attitude to this is simple, I don’t really care. My mindfulness meditation works for me.

  • Men, Listen Up: Women Like The Smell Of Guys Who Eat A Certain Diet

    What we eat can influence more than our waistlines. It turns out, our diets also help determine what we smell like. A recent study found that women preferred the body odor of men who ate a lot of fruits and vegetables.
    Bullshit? Yeah I call bull shit. Or maybe I just prefer women who like the smell of pizza and doughnuts…

  • Inside the Lab That’s Quantifying Happiness

    In Mississippi, people tweet about cake and cookies an awful lot; in Colorado, it’s noodles. In Mississippi, the most-tweeted activity is eating; in Colorado, it’s running, skiing, hiking, snowboarding, and biking, in that order.
    BIG DATA EVERYTHING!! Is this stuff going to far? Or not far enough…

  • How Andrew O’Hagan, one of Scotland’s leading writers, went from No to Yes

    ‘A lie?’ I said. ‘On Radio 4? I don’t think so.’ ‘You did so,’ he said. ‘You told them we had no books in our house when you were growing up. That isnae true. There was one; it was green; it sat on top the fridge for ages.’ ‘That was the Kilmarnock Telephone Directory,’ I said.
    Want to understand the Scottish Independence argument (from both sides), read this.

  • The World Is Running Out of Sand

    The final event of last year’s beach-volleyball world tour was held in Toronto, in September, in a parking lot at the edge of Lake Ontario.
    Is it because every time I go to a beach, half of it ends up in my damn shoes?

  • Wax on, wax ouch: pubic grooming has a high injury rate, survey reveals

    A quarter of those who groom their pubic hair have suffered mishaps from cuts to burns and rashes – some requiring medical help – researchers have found. Whether it’s shaving, waxing or laser hair removal, pubic grooming has become commonplace.
    MEDICAL HELP? What the hell are you people doing?!

  • Can Dogs Smell Their ‘Reflections’?

    For decades, scientists have tested animal intelligence by seeing if they can recognize themselves in mirrors. But how do you revamp that test for a species that relies more on smell than sight?
    I dunno, sometimes that drunk guy on the bus can probably smell his reflection too …

  • Why Scientists Can’t Agree on Whether It’s Unhealthy to Be Overweight

    Some studies show being overweight leads to a greater risk of death; others show it doesn’t. Here’s what’s really going on. Is being a little bit overweight bad for you? Could it lead to an untimely death?
    Article 4562 in the ongoing series of ‘Will scientists every make up their damn minds?’

  • The Docx games: three days at the Microsoft Office World Championship

    On a Sunday night two weeks back, in the Rose Court Garden of the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, 150 antsy competitors between the ages of 13 and 22 milled around eating miniature whoopie pies by the light of the Moon, sizing up their global rivals in the efficient use of Excel…
    There is a lot of horribleness in the USA at the moment, which makes me applaud this kinda thing all the more.

  • In the future, your body won’t be buried… you’ll dissolve

    The Resomator stands monolithic in the corner of a room in the bowels of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). It’s as sterile as a hospital here, but every patient is already dead.
    SOYLENT GREEN!!!