Huh? What?

Post Gender Pickup

…if I were to find a mate, be it you or someone else here tonight, I would be more than happy to tell the proverbial “man” that I quit so I can raise our offspring with gender-neutral hobbies, while my biologically female partner continues to pursue her interests, be they industrial, recreational or yes, even sexual with another mate.

thus goes a post-gender normative man trying to pick up a girl at a bar.

Japanese Visual Multiplication

I have no idea if this is true – or even if it works – but by god, it is beautiful.

I Could Listen for Years

A record player modified by Bartholomäus Traubeck, that converts the rings of slices of wood into piano music.

When the Right is Right

The New York Times asked several prominent liberals what it was they considered Republicans often got right (interestingly, Republicans asked the same question were less able to give clear answers). Gary Jacobson’s were particularly lucid

It recognizes “the importance of material incentives in shaping behavior, and the difficulty in keeping bureaucracies under control and responsive to citizens.”

It is skeptical of “the application of social science theories to real world problems” and cognizant of “human fallibility/corruptibility.”

It places a high value on “liberty/autonomy.”

It places a similarly high value on “good parenting.”

It acknowledges “the superiority of market systems for encouraging efficient use of resources.”

Jonathan Haidt, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, also explains why Conservatives are not against all change (e.g. the internet), rather the effects of changes. And other authors weigh the relative strengths and weaknesses of both camps. You can read their notes here.

Freedom vs. Freedom

Libertarianism is a tricky beast, but George Monbiot does a great job of tackling those who would use the term “Freedom” as an excuse to behave appalingly.

As Berlin noted: “No man’s activity is so completely private as never to obstruct the lives of others in any way. ‘Freedom for the pike is death for the minnows’.” So, he argued, some people’s freedom must sometimes be curtailed “to secure the freedom of others”. In other words, your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. The negative freedom not to have our noses punched is the freedom that green and social justice campaigns, exemplified by the Occupy movement, exist to defend.

You can read the rest of this great and much needed piece of logic here.

Delicious Ghost

Delicious Ghost has more tasty video clips than it would be healthy to watch, check out this sample from this week. Somehow they’re all related, in a 2010 kinda way.

Goodbye (BLR) Cain

Such a pity that this guy had to go.

Hasisi Park

Artist Hasisi Park has some really great work. She also has the best artist’s cv

[via itsnicethat]

Robbing Banks for Beginners

This was the winning story from The Moth LA’s story telling competition, on the theme “Big Breaks”.

Jonathan Meese on Art

Artist Jonathan Meese on why art is more powerful than religion, politics, or anything else.

Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Best to avoid these, I would have thought.

1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard – no one wishes they spent more time in the office
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier

Read more about them here.