buchino

My brother and sister-in-law are having a kid very, very soon....

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0800

My brother and sister-in-law are having a kid very, very soon. Ron Jeremy wishes them well.

Wha-Whaaaaaa

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:37:34 -0800

This is the kind of affirmation one ought to keep in mind when they engage in a string of one night stands. For serious, get laid now; get married later.

hicatie:

There’s an episode of This American Life called ‘Somewhere Out There’ that has stuck with me since it aired last year, particularly the opening segment. In it, a Harvard physicist takes a scientific look at the notion of soul mates—more specifically, the idea that there is one just one person out there for each of us. He based his study on something called the Drake Equation which examines the number of planets in the universe and how many of these could potentially hold intelligent life.

Because he was single at the time, he wanted to apply that equation to his life and replaced intelligent life with girlfriends. Of course nothing is exact—we’re dealing with rough numbers, estimations and general deductions. He started with the raw number of people living in his town of Boston; about 600,000. He figured he could cut that down to 300,000 given the 50/50 male to female ratio. Then he set up some basics: age range (between 20 and 40; down to 35% of 300,000) and college graduates (apparently only 25% of adults are college graduates). Those “basics” left him with 25,000, down from 600,000. He estimated half of these to be single. Now he had to deal with the real issue: how many of these would he find attractive? He guessed, in my opinion, a high percentage: 1 out of 5. Even with that generous assumption, his number was cut to 2,500.

Without factoring any personal details—sense of humor, interests, goals, religion, etc—this straight male in a a major city was left with a relatively low number of potential suitors. So like I said it stuck with me and it made me wonder what my number would be as a gay female in a “major” city.

Like Boston, Portland has a population of about 600,000. Cut that in half for the number of females to 300,000. Now even though I am more than certain that the “1 out of 10” statistic is based on male sexuality, I will use it as my next cut. 30,000. I’ll use his +10 age range but not -10 because that illegal and gross, so I’ll say I’m left with 17 percent of 30,000—5,100. I won’t say they have to be college grads because whatever, but I would like them not to be an idiot so let’s say 75 percent of those are not idiots. Around 3,800. Cut that in half for those who are single and I’ve got 1,400. I’ll use his VERY GENEROUS 1 out of 5 attraction scale and I now have 280. This is before we get into anything personal. Half that for crazies. Half that for sense of humor. Half that for something they left out: their feelings toward you. Half that for everything else.

17.

Whew, imagine if I was being honest with my estimations.

More of the shark attack victim costume from Erin, who said in...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:00:00 -0800

More of the shark attack victim costume from Erin, who said in her e-mail that an actual shark ripped her arm off when she was surfing. Good thing it didn’t take her sense of humor.

(via marinemusic, fuckyeahsharks)

Sebastian Cabot’s Beard Book with foreword by Willie...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:30:00 -0800

Sebastian Cabot’s Beard Book with foreword by Willie Nelson

(via whiskerino, eyeonspringfield, Cary Norton)

Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry vs. Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Anne Widdencombe MP

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 11:19:00 -0800

Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry vs. Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Anne Widdencombe MP:

(via lkm)

“Leg” by Arzachel (1969)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:07:00 -0800

“Leg” by Arzachel (1969)

“Rambling Pony” by Fleetwood Mac (1969)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:06:00 -0800

“Rambling Pony” by Fleetwood Mac (1969)

“Sure ’Nuff ’n Yes I Do” by Captain Beefheart &...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:05:00 -0800

“Sure ’Nuff ’n Yes I Do” by Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band (1967)

“Rollin’ and Tumblin’” by Cream (1966)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:04:00 -0800

“Rollin’ and Tumblin’” by Cream (1966)

“Down in the Bottom” by Howlin’ Wolf (1961)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:03:00 -0800

“Down in the Bottom” by Howlin’ Wolf (1961)

“Rollin’ and Tumblin’” by Muddy Waters (1950)

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:02:00 -0800

“Rollin’ and Tumblin’” by Muddy Waters (1950)

“If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” by Robert...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:01:00 -0800

“If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” by Robert Johnson (1936)

“Minglewood Blues” by Gus Cannon’s Jug...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:00:00 -0800

“Minglewood Blues” by Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers (1928)

{ Download }

Well, I rolled and I tumbled, cried the whole night long

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 09:50:00 -0800

Well, I rolled and I tumbled, cried the whole night long:

“Rollin’ and Tumblin’” is a blues song that has been recorded hundreds of times by various artists. Considered as a traditional, it has been recorded with different lyrics and titles. Authorship is most often attributed to Hambone Willie Newbern or McKinley Morganfield (aka Muddy Waters).

The earliest recorded version is “Minglewood Blues” by Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers (Victor, 1928), credited to Noah Lewis who played harmonica in the band. Hambone Willie Newbern recorded it as “Roll and Tumble Blues” (Okeh 8679, 1929). Other bluesmen recorded their own versions—such as “If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day” by Robert Johnson (1936)[3] and “Rollin’ Blues” by John Lee Hooker. The best known version became Muddy Waters’ “Rolling and Tumbling,” with Ernest “Big” Crawford on bass, for the Chess brothers’ Aristocrat label in 1950. Leonard Chess insisted that Waters record the song less than a month after Waters had recorded a version for the rival Parkway label, featuring his band mates Little Walter and Baby Face Leroy Foster.[4] The Parkway label credits the Baby Face Leroy Trio, with vocals by Leroy, and Muddy Waters as the songwriter. Elmore James recorded the song as “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” in 1960, with himself credited as author. In 1961, Howlin’ Wolf recorded “Down in the Bottom,” which employed a new set of lyrics and was credited to Willie Dixon.

{ Continue reading | Wikipedia }

Selected versions and variations of “Rollin’ and Tumblin’” can be played here.

Building a Better Lightbulb

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 01:22:10 -0800

Building a Better Lightbulb:

The U.S. Department of Energy is offering $10 million to the first individual or company to develop an energy-efficient LED replacement for the standard 60-watt incandescent bulb. DOE lighting program manager James Brodrick discusses the L Prize, and what makes a better bulb.

{ Listen | NPR }

They look like cartoon characters. (via lordkitchenersvalet)

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:50:48 -0800

They look like cartoon characters.

(via lordkitchenersvalet)

Don’t let breast cancer steal second...

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 08:00:00 -0800

Don’t let breast cancer steal second base.

(via timfsbrown, theoriginaljoefisher)

Jon Stewart is Glen Beck This is awesome.

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:36:00 -0800

Jon Stewart is Glen Beck

This is awesome.

Capitalism's Fundamental Flaw

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:09:29 -0800

Capitalism's Fundamental Flaw:

But there is another less obvious bug in capitalism that I don’t believe regulation can quite handle. It is the fundamental flaw that our celebrated system rewards speculators much more than creators. A relatively junior hedge-fund manager or a bond trader on Wall Street makes a great deal more money in his career than Charles Kao, who invented the basic physics making optical communication a reality. Dr. Kao, now 73, won the Nobel Prize this year, but his net worth would not compare favorably with that of George Soros.

Yet, who added the real value? Soros or Kao?

In 2009, 30 million people sit unemployed in America. Yet, the speculators have managed to lift the stock market up, and the media pretends that we’re having a recovery.

We’re not having any recovery. We need the innovators, the entrepreneurs, the creators, the scientists, the technologists—those who build value, those who create jobs—to lead us out of this nightmare. Not a bunch of speculators who make money regardless of whether value gets created or destroyed. In fact, many of them are incentivized to destroy value by spreading fake rumors about companies and stocks, and they do so often. Some get caught, most don’t.

And our talented youth gets seduced by this profession of speculation known for its easy and abundantly flowing financial rewards, avoiding those that require much greater intellectual capacity. Most importantly, very early in their lives, our talented youth come to realize that fields that may earn them a Nobel Prize—cancer research or multi-core computing—may not make them rich. But moving money from here to there will.

And thus, we lose Berkeley Ph.Ds in nuclear physics to hedge funds and MIT computer scientists capable of delivering computing to 6 billion people to derivative manipulation on Wall Street.

(via azspot)

The guys in the office knew I was freaking out about turning...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:29:48 -0800

The guys in the office knew I was freaking out about turning thirty, so they got me a birthday cake in hexadecimal to help soften the blow.

(via langer)