Does the human body really replace itself every 7 years?
Let's say you transfer your mind into a computer—not all at once but gradually
In his story Sarrasine, Balzac, describing a castrato disguised as a woman, writes the following sentence: "This was woman herself, with her sudden fears, her irrational whims, her instinctive worries, her impetuous boldness, her fussings, and her delicious sensibility." Who is speaking thus? Is it the hero of the story bent on remaining ignorant of the castrato hidden beneath the woman? Is it Balzac the individual, furnished by his personal experience with a philosophy of Woman? Is it Balzac the author professing ‘literary’ ideas on femininity? Is it universal wisdom? Romantic psychology? We shall never know, for the good reason that writing is the destruction of every voice, of every point of origin. Writing is that neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing. [Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, 1967]
These fictional examples suggest that creativity and dishonesty often go hand-in-hand. Is there an actual link? Is there something about the creative process that triggers unethical behavior? Or does behaving in dishonest ways spur creative thinking? My research suggests that they both exist: Encouraging people to think outside the box can result in greater cheating, and crossing ethical boundaries can make people more creative in subsequent tasks. [Scientific American]
Some new evidence about just how quickly our unconscious minds can process incoming information
Your voice betrays your personality in a split second
Elephants Know How Dangerous We Are From How We Speak
How sound affects the taste of our food
New spectroscopy technique makes it faster and easier to find out how much horse is in your burger
Woman, 63, 'becomes PREGNANT in the mouth' with baby squid after eating calamari
In 2005, levamisole was found in almost 2 percent of the cocaine seized by the DEA. In 2007, the frequency went up to 15 percent, and by 2011 a staggering 73 percent of all cocaine seized by the DEA had been cut with levamisole.
Effect of a clown’s presence at botulinum toxin injections in children
Does clown therapy really help anxious kids?
Gonorrhea is about to become impossible to treat. Antibiotic resistance means the STD might soon spread more aggressively than ever.
The economics of prostitution in eight U.S. cities
Once derided as being like a plastic bag with the erotic appeal of a jellyfish, the female condom is being reinvented as the next big thing in safe sex.
Butt Shaped Lamp Can Be Pinched On, Slapped Off [Thanks Tim]
3D Printed Phil Robertson Duck Dynasty Butt Plug
Road closed as police hunt severed penis
'Lick This' App Teaches Oral Sex Via Phone-Licking
The surprising similarities between pole dancers and financial dealers [PDF]
Hormones and Women Voters: A Very Modern Scientific Controversy And: Does Daylight Saving Time Affect Voter Turnout?
The arguments for ditching notes and coins are numerous, and quite convincing. In the US, a study by Tufts University concluded that the cost of using cash amounts to around $200 billion per year – about $637 per person. This is primarily the costs associated with collecting, sorting and transporting all that money, but also includes trivial expenses like ATM fees. Incidentally, the study also found that the average American wastes five and a half hours per year withdrawing cash from ATMs; just one of the many inconvenient aspects of hard currency. While coins last decades, or even centuries, paper currency is much less durable. A dollar bill has an average lifespan of six years, and the US Federal Reserve shreds somewhere in the region of 7,000 tons of defunct banknotes each year. Physical currency is grossly unhealthy too. Researchers in Ohio spot-checked cash used in a supermarket and found 87% contained harmful bacteria. Only 6% of the bills were deemed “relatively clean.” […] Stockholm’s homeless population recently began accepting card payments. [...] Cash transactions worldwide rose just 1.75% between 2008 and 2012, to $11.6 trillion. Meanwhile, non traditional payment methods rose almost 14% to total $6.4 trillion. [TransferWise]
TOR Network Increasingly Being Abused by Cybercriminals.
How an Army e-mail phishing experiment went awry
Where are the 750k Bitcoins lost by Mt. Gox?
Lady Gaga's Charity Donated Just $5,000 of Its $2.1 Million
Study finds that social ties influence who wins certain Hollywood movie awards
This past summer was a disaster for the major studios - but it was also a highly predictable one. The Future of Film I, II, and III
The Story Behind The THX Deep Note
Heidegger’s Hitler Problem Is Worse Than We Thought
The Phenomenology of Spirit: how to appreciate Hegel
A study finds more than half the books lining shelves in British homes have never been read.
To get one of those apartments, on average, you need to plunk down the equivalent of almost $300,000. Household rental system in South Korea
Most hotels actually lose money on room service.
Commercial drones are now legal in U.S. skies, thanks to a court decision this month that slapped down the Federal Aviation Administration’s attempt to ground them. A San Francisco company has leaped on the opportunity, gearing up to offer drone delivery of drugstore items in the Mission.
The last place on Earth… without life
Nearly Every Star Hosts at Least One Alien Planet
The Statue of Liberty under construction in Paris [more]
By taking about 100 pictures of McDuffie using a pillow to pose as he did in the picture taken Aug. 14, 1945, by photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gibson said she was able to match the muscles, ears and other features of the then-80-year-old McDuffie to the young sailor in the original image.
Park Avenue surgeon implants woman with heart-shaped eye jewelry
The man who has painted more than 1,000 watercolors with his tongue.
In the last years news are over and over again about record breaking prices reached for an artwork at a public auction. Such high pricing strucks not only the old masters but also works for still living artists. As you might know the prices for young artist’s paintings are often assessed by canvas size. So the question for my use-case arises: Is there also a correlation between size and hammer price of famous artworks at auctions? [Ruth Reiche]
Richard Prince is selling inkjet prints of Twitter screenshots (another one)
The internationalized art world relies on a unique language.
Shooting Into the Corner, 2008-2009
The whole event was supposed to be a fundraiser for charity, but ended up costing the city millions in lawsuits [read more]
What it Was Like to Travel to Iran With Andy Warhol in 1976
Damien Hirst exhibition in Doha, Qatar
Robert Mapplethorpe Children's Museum Celebrates Grand Opening