removal of brain tissue increases spirituality

via.

Oh hai. So, removing part of a person's brain increases their belief in God?

...

I have no jokes to insert here, because this story writes them all for you:

Ever suspected that religious people have a part of their brain missing? Well, here’s a new study that will let you take a cheap (and reasonably accurate) shot at the God-fearing…

No, the study was apparently legit, follow-up after tumor removal from various parts of the brain:

a team of researchers in Italy has found that damage to a specific region of the brain (the posterior parietal cortex) can increase a person’s feelings of “self-transcendence,” or the feeling of being connected to others and to the universe.

I leave you with this, an excellent article that posits an evolutionary basis for religion, followed by this:

HST dealing with customer service

THIS is how you deal with the cheapjack little fuckers who answer phones when you need tech support.

Hunter Thompson gives someone a very bad day. Do NOT screw up this man's audio/visual set-up.

language is, of course, NSFW.

still stalling, but...

...jaysus h christ. if the who when they were firing on all cylinders wasn't THE greatest rock band of all time, then there is no such thing. i know, i know, it's cock-rock, it's overindulgent stadium rock that epitomizes the excesses of the 70s, and yes, that douchey show with douchey david caruso bought the daltrey scream, but you know what? fuck you, and watch this.
i defy you not to say EVEN SO, even with all the baggage, even as ironic as we allow ourselves to be over bands of this era, EVEN SO, there is not a rock band that can touch these fuckers when they were at their prime.
jaysus. imma start a muthafuckin religion based around the who if i'm not careful.
praise them. :)

takes me back...

...procrastinating has become so much more efficient with the advent of the internet. i now have the ability to procrastinate for a family of four all on my own!

ran across this vid while i was stalling and avoiding writing.
this takes me back--i lived my teenage years in da ATL and so REM was ubiquitous. and i've always loved them.

seeing this vid of 'drive' from 'automatic for the people' reminded me of when i got to see them play live at some smaller joint in downtown atlanta...maybe 84? 85? and although this song didn't come out till way later, the grimness, the sense of doom and darkness about it--especially with stipe playing the stoic statue in this concert footage--reminded me of that 'life's rich pageant' show.

the girl i was dating at the time, who was older than me and braver than me and supercrazy hot, and got me in to the show somehow--was also a coke dealer. and she wound up dead a few weeks later. just sorta faded off the map there, aside from an obit in the paper.

weird.

her name was jackie.

i also always think about the velvet underground when i think of that time: 'jackie is just speeding away/thought she was james dean for a day...'
anyway. enjoy the grimness.

how to handle climate change deniers

via

how to handle climate change deniers--a fine workbook put together by a guy named andy cobb of second city.



mmm. hazelnut.

and there you have it.

via via

nearly a third of texans believe that humans and dinosaurs co-existed.

why did we argue against them seceding again?

will that last one to leave before the end of civilization please turn out the lights.

happy mardi gras

via boingboing.

Here's a sweet treat--a short video that captures a bit of a Mardi Gras parade from 1956. It's pretty fascinating to see what the world was like even just half a century ago. Also it's pretty cool to see the innocence of the time and the city of New Orleans back then, before carnival became a frat-boy drink-till-you-puke fest. Not that people didn't drink back then; I just think that many modern attendees think of it as an early spring break and there's actually a lot more to the celebration than that.

Anyway, the good folks at boingboing put together this vid from what appears to be a handheld 8mm home movie made back in the day with some stills intercut.

Enjoy, and throw me something, mister!

here's the thing...

via.
look, you fucking douche-nozzles.

there's ironic appreciation of the silliness of the past.


and then there's 'Now You're Just Being An Asshole.'

note the smug self-awareness on this douchey hipster as he prepares to freak the squares right the fuck out. i wish i was that clever.