D G

Wax - California

Warning: Language.

A new video from Ze Frank’s “True Facts” series on animals. Hilarious and gross, as usual.

[zefrank1]

I would sooner be dragged through the fires of hell twice than watch any of the ridiculous, self-congratulatory Hollywood awards shows, so I did not see the Beyonce performance everyone is talking about today. I gather from Mollie Hemingway’s excellent article that Beyonce, a woman who has made a fortune by a) looking pretty, b) singing, and c) dancing on stage with women dressed up as sex objects is now calling herself a feminist. Apparently, you can do literally anything and call yourself a feminist these days.

It got me thinking about a conversation I had with a friend who’s slightly older than I am who relayed that at his workplace, they often got together socially on Friday evenings to have a “movie night.” One of these nights he got to choose the movie and he selected the 80s classic Heathers about high school cliques gone awry. Later, this friend relayed to me that the movie flopped with the under-25 crowd that was present for a simple reason: “These kids now don’t even have a frame of reference for that move – there’s no such thing as social strata anymore. There’s no jocks, no drama geeks, no band nerds, no stoners, it’s all just the same nowadays, just one amalgamated mass of indifference.”

All of this came bubbling to the top as I was driving around with my 13 year old son this weekend listening to the horrible music that comes on his favorite pop station and I heard a song that caused me more old-man-dismay than any other I’d ever heard. Shazam informed me that the name of the song was “Secrets” by someone named Mary Lambert. For those of you who are fortunate enough to have never heard of either, please don’t make the mistake of loading this song on your Spotify or iTunes – it has nothing to recommend it musically to anyone over the age of 15; however, the lyrics are as follows:

I’ve got bi-polar disorder
My s***’s not in order
I’m overweight
I’m always late
I’ve got too many things to say
I rock mom jeans, cat earrings
Extrapolate my feelings
My family is dysfunctional
But we have a good time killing each other[Pre-Chorus:]
They tell us from the time we’re young
To hide the things that we don’t like about ourselves
Inside ourselves
I know I’m not the only one who spent so long attempting to be someone else
Well I’m over it[Chorus:]
I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are (secrets are)
I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are (secrets are) So-o-o-o-o what
So what
So what
So whatI can’t think straight, I’m so gay
Sometimes I cry a whole day
I care a lot, use an analog clock
And never know when to stop
And I’m passive, aggressive
I’m scared of the dark and the dentist
I love my butt and won’t shut up
And I never really grew up[Pre-Chorus]They tell us from the time we’re young
To hide the things that we don’t like about ourselves
Inside ourselves
I know I’m not the only one who spent so long attempting to be someone else
Well I’m over it[Chorus:]
I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are (secrets are)
I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are (secrets are)
So what
So what
So what
So what
I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are (secrets are)
I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are (secrets are)
So what
So what
So what
So what(I don’t care if the world knows what my secrets are)
So what
So what
So what
So what

I know a lot of parents are concerned about sex, drugs, and violent themes in music. There’s definitely something to that. Personally, I find that a lot of that is really just playing off the rebellion inherent in adolescence which tends to fade away as people grow up, get married, and have kids of their own. On the other hand, I find this ridiculous leveling attitude to be infinitely more corrosive to a well-ordered society – this notion that there is no such thing as good or bad in terms of anything, whether it be appearance, behavior, personality, or achievement. There is only different and equally good. And while promiscuity, drugs, and violent culture are definitely dangerous and shouldn’t be encouraged especially in young people, they tend to be largely (albeit not entirely) transient dangers in the grand scheme of life. The effacement of the ideal of a successful and productive member of society is a much more permanent danger, because this ideal is what ultimately succeeds in pulling most people out of the wasteful rebellions of their youth, at least eventually. If that ideal dies, much of society’s ability to ensure order through the enforcement of social norms dies with it, and order must increasingly be enforced instead by an overbearing and increasingly well-armed state. The experience of Ferguson cries out against this as a viable solution.

I realize that this specific complaint walks a very narrow line. Marching to the beat of your own drummer, at least to a certain extent, is a uniquely American ideal, and one that largely gave birth to our nation and our national identity. However, there is a difference between channeling inventiveness and even eccentricity into productive living and the celebration, as in the song above, of total indifference towards personal improvement or meaningful contribution to society. Maybe instead of saying that we should hide the things we don’t like about ourselves, we could say that we can make at least an effort to change those things about ourselves? Loudly telling people to just be happy with the results of their bad personal choices and expecting society to find you equally likeable/attractive/charming no matter what your personal attributes are is no kind of answer at all.

Mary Lambert, whoever she is, appears to have been the one in ten million who stumbled bass ackwards into fame and celebrity despite marginal talent, so it’s fine for her that she can brag about being lazy and not care about the effects of antisocial tendencies; for most people, following this life advice is a good way to perennial employment at minimum wage (combined with inevitable tiresome wheedling about how the government should make sure that you’re better compensated for your special unique snowflakiness).

It’s a real sickness that we have as a society that Mary Lambert is apparently a positive and uplifting figure while the guy who wrote this article (pervasive language warning but read it anyway) is reviled as a jerk, even though following his advice will inevitably make you a more successful and happy person in the long run. Because God help us if we reach the point as a country that even the people who sign paychecks don’t care (or, worse, are not permitted by law to care) about even minimal efforts to conform to social norms or cohesion anymore. Because when the day comes that “I suck and I don’t care” is valued equally with “I’m going to try to make myself a better person and thereby a better life for my family”, then “I suck and I don’t care” is going to be the path that almost everyone chooses.

Your guess as to how all that will inevitably turn out.

The post A Society Without Standards appeared first on RedState.

...

Not to sound like a total dick, but Depends is doing a huge viral marketing campaign to raise awareness for adult diapers. #Underwearness if you will.

Texas

The post #Underwearness appeared first on People Of Walmart.

A hoverbike currently being developed by British engineering company Malloy Aeronautics would bring drone technology to new heights. 

The company is testing unmanned flights of the hoverbike, which, they say, will be able to reach an altitude of 9,000 feet when completed. Once they achieve aviation certifications for the unmanned model, they'll be able to develop a manned prototype.

When finished, the quadcopter could be piloted by a person sitting on the bike or by remote control.

Videos of the test flights show just how high this bike can go. The drone used in the test is one-third the size the hoverbike will ultimately be. And according to Reuters, the bike can fly at a speed of more than 100 knots, or about 115 miles per hour.

The Malloy team designed the hoverbike as an update to the traditional helicopter, one that's safer and easier to use. 

"I've always been one to look at designs and see how I can make them better. And when I got my helicopter license I realised that the helicopter as a design has a lot of improvements that need to be made, and one of them is safety and reliability," Chris Malloy, managing director of Malloy Aeronautics, said to Reuters. "They're very complex machines. And my goal was to see where we could strip away the complexity and increase the safety and that's basically where the hoverbike came from."

According to the design team, the hoverbike is safer than a helicopter because of an inherent simplicity in the design. 

"Rotor-strike is a major issue with helicopters. This eliminates rotor-strike by protecting the propeller blades from the ground and other airborne obstacles," Malloy said.  "The helicopter is inherently complex. The hover bike is very simple." 

Construction on the full-scale model is expected to be completed in the next few months.Malloy used a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the project. The campaign has earned more than $77,000 with only six more days to go.

You can watch the whole Kickstarter video below.

SEE ALSO: The 10 Biggest Tech Billionaire Yachts On The High Seas

WE'RE ON PINTEREST:  Click Here To Follow Us

Join the conversation about this story »

Street artist Pejac (previously) was recently in Paris where he created at least three new works almost guaranteed to make you smile. The first appears to be a figure throwing a water balloon at a wall, but on closer inspection the giant splat contains a painting of Manet’s famous The Luncheon on the Grass. The second involves a pair of children who appear to be burning ants with a magnifying glass in a spot of sunlight, but once viewed close-up the tiny figures are revealed to be small people instead of insects. Lastly he made use of a thick wall crack to form the edge of a ghostly looking door. You can see a few more views over on StreetArtNews.

I’ve tried to explain Lethal League to a lot of people. I've found that the best way to describe it is “If Mario Tennis and Smash Bros. had a baby, and it was raised by European DJs who love baseball.”

Now if that doesn’t sound interesting to you I don’t know what would.

image Via Cartoon Brew

Not even sure I can legally call this a game. It may be closer to an interactive vector art gallery than an actual game. But the interaction is what sets it apart from being a non-active display of eccentric art work. This is art work you manipulate by clicking various things and, well, feeding the head. It is exactly as odd as it sounds, but in the same breath, it is divinely unique and there is something oddly addictive to it. Just some simple point and clicks, but after a few (there are 27 steps to complete it for those interested), you just want to keep going.

From the art style to the fact that is seems to evolve the more you play it and acclimate yourself with it, spend five minutes with it today. You will find it to be a nice distraction from your usual day-to-day activities.

Play Feed the Head

Egyptian feminist strips naked and drops a turd on ISIS flag. It sure seems like feminists in other countries are more fun than the ones here in the U.S. (First of all, they like to get naked which we find an endearing habit.) And, it sure seems like turds are in the news a lot suddenly.

Do you enjoy Pizza Hut’s products, but wish they could be served up by someone with a surly, anti-customer attitude, no food service or management skills, and with a generous sprinkling of cat hair on everything? Perhaps you would enjoy the fantasy world in current Pizza Hut ads in Japan, where cats have been hired to run a Pizza Hut franchise because OH MY GOODNESS LOOK AT THE KITTY.

It is exactly as difficult as you might think for a cat to dress itself in a restaurant uniform.

You don’t have to speak Japanese, or even speak cat, to understand these videos.

How does a cat deliver a pizza? We’re glad you asked. Very slowly.

After thoroughly studying a map of the neighborhood.

Sorry if you’re somewhere that you aren’t able to watch videos. Will it make you feel a little better if we made a GIF of one of the Pizza Cat working on a spreadsheet?

It Looks Like Pizza Hut in Japan Is Now Totally Being Run by Cats [AdWeek]