Have I mentioned recently that we have a facebook group? Only badasses are allowed in. Good luck.

Actor Steve Buscemi was a New York City fire fighter from 1980 to 1984. He showed up at his old firehouse the day after 9/11 in New York to volunteer, working twelve-hour shifts for a week, and digging through rubble looking for missing firefighters.

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By popular demand, Oz of Thrones has offered up his predictions on what will happen by the end of this season of Game of Thrones. Book readers, I know this post is going to be very, very tempting, but please DO NOT post comments here. Just read and enjoy the Unsullieds’ predictions. Any comments mentioning the books, no matter how vague or veiled they may be, will be deleted.

Oz of Thrones:  Welcome one and all to the off-week, Unsullied, non-book reader, uneducated speculation for the rest of Season 3 and further into the future of GoT (aren’t you glad that wasn’t the name of the post itself?).

Be warned now that this post will be heavily, heavily moderated by WiC, HmR, and OitF if the need arises.  They also have my permission to pull this post completely if the Sullied comments reach a certain height of spoilery and moderating is more trouble than it’s worth.  Myself and the Unsullied don’t want to know what happens next.  Otherwise, most of us would have begun reading the books by now.  We make the choice to not read and therefore be surprised, shocked, and awed by the show and we want to keep it that way.

The predictions are here for your enjoyment, but not for your spoilers.  Comment away…. But please do not mention the books, the book content, the book comparisons, or anything else in the books.  I don’t even want to know how many pages there are in the books.

And one more thing…. while I am the self-proclaimed leader of the Un’s, my thoughts may or may not represent the thoughts of my fearless army.  I can guarantee that there are clues, comments, and suggestions that I have missed and my predictions, while being somewhat educated, may not be agreed with by other Unsullieds.  In other words, don’t read a prediction that is unfounded and has no basis and call my army ignorant.  It is my fault, as I am merely the chosen one fortunate enough to post on what I consider the best GoT website out there.  But there are certainly smarter Un’s than myself…. Probably very many in fact.

So let’s do it!  I apologize up front for the length…. Too many story lines!  But maybe it is a good thing since we have some time to kill before the next episode.  Hope you enjoy!

Dany and The Jedi’s: 

Two Sentence Recap:  Khaleesi has managed to get herself out of one mess at Astapor (with an army of 8,000 in tow mind you) only to get herself in another mess which I initially thought was a mistake.  But Daario thought she was hot, especially naked and getting out of a bath tub, and has apparently gained an extra 2,000 soldiers referred to as the “Second Sons.”

Unlikely Prediction:  Dany and Daario (the new D&D) hit it off behind closed doors to keep Jorah from knowing what is going on.  Everything is cool until Daario calls Dany a MODILF (instead of MILF) in front of Jorah who loses it and whacks the pretty head of Daario off.  Jorah mounts the head next to a picture of Drogo under a banner that reads, ”Men that have died so I may one day have the chance of being with Khaleesi.”

More Likely Prediction (which can also be referred to as the “Daario Scenario”):  While I have no reason to believe that Dany won’t make it to Westeros one day, she still has a long way to go.  My fear is that she is going to pick too many battles and hurt her chances of getting the Iron Throne.  On the upside, the more time it takes, the bigger the dragons become, and dragons are a major advantage.  I hope I am wrong, but if there is still a battle to take place at Yunkai, I fear it will feature some casualties which might include one of the following: Jorah, Selmy, or Daario.  My initial reaction is that Jorah will not trust Daario, and that Daario may set up Jorah to be slain.  If this happens, Daario will have to sleep with one eye open for the rest of his nights, as the Knights of House Oz will have a huge bounty on his head. Daario may be “hot”, but Jorah is the man.  I sincerely hope I am wrong about this one.

Arya and Her New Puppy:

Two Sentence Recap:  Our little warrior has had her share of losses this season with Hot Pie turning professional animal bread maker, and Gendry being hauled off to Dragonstone.  After running away from the BwB, she is now held by the Hound who promises to take her to the Twins to be reunited with Rob and Cat for the wedding of Edmure.

Unlikely Prediction:  Arya gets to know the Hound better and decides that he is not such a bad guy.  When she comes of age, she promises to marry the Hound which fits perfectly into what has become the season of unlikely weddings.  Arya/Hound hitched; Sansa/Tyrion hitched; Talisa/Rob hitched and expecting; Edmure/ Frey daughter hitched.  Upon being informed of all of this, Cat starts imagining what family get-togethers will be like and goes into cardiac arrest.

More Likely Prediction:  Arya and the Hound make it to the wedding.  But the exchange of Arya for payment does not go as planned and some type of dramatic showdown ensues.  There may be a big character death involved here too.  As a show viewer only, the agreement between Rob and the Frey’s for soldiers in return for Edmure’s marriage has just gone down too easily in my mind.  Edmure ends up being slain leaving another hole in the agreement between Rob and Walder, and even worse for Rob’s quest to kill Joffrey.  Which leads us directly to……

Rob:

Two Sentence Recap:  The King in the North has had his share of betrayal this season (Karstark and now Bolton) while almost accomplishing nothing, other than getting Talisa knocked up.  As mentioned before, he finds himself needing the help of Walder Frey when the Karstark loyalists retreat home after Rob takes their Lord’s head.

Unlikely Prediction:  After the Frey deal falls through, Rob and Talisa decide to say “screw them all” and head out to Volantis.  But Talisa feels guilty for lying and admits to being a spy for the Wildlings and Mance Rayder.  She also tells him that Jon Snow has defected and is in love with a Wildling girl.  They travel to the Wall to find Jon and end up finding Bran and Rickon in the process.  They join forces with the Wildlings and rebuild Winterfell which remains their stronghold against the White Walkers.

More Likely Prediction:  If the Edmure prediction comes to fruition, then Rob could have major issues.  But he seems so stubborn at times that I don’t think anyone could keep him from at least attempting to avenge his fathers’ death, even if it means his own.  Arya rejoins Rob and Cat, and tells them about her travels and the BwB.  Having very few options remaining, Rob finds and meets with Beric and Thoros and they realize they have more in common than in differences, and decide to join forces in the taking of Casterly Rock. The only conflict I would find in such an arrangement would be that the BwB follow the Lord of Light, which is connected to Melisandre, which is connected to Stannis, who just threw a leech in a fire with Rob’s name attached.  More on that in a bit……

Jon Snow and the Wildlings:

Two Sentence Recap:  After Jon proves himself by slaying Halfhand, and by sharing secrets with them about the wall, he seems to have gained the trust of most of the Wildlings.  Jon and Ygritte’s relationship has moved forward fast, and he has confided in her that he does not think that the Wildlings can win their fight.

Unlikely Prediction:  Orell is busy warging with his eagle and watches overhead as Ygritte is laying down and Jon is doing that thing with his tuuuuungue!  Orell makes his eagle dive-bomb and pecks Jon in the ass.  What Orell couldn’t see was that Tormund was underneath a tree watching it all and giving Jon pointers on how to do things better.  Tormund jumps up and spears the eagle, which in turn makes Orell go into convulsions and dies.  The three have a big laugh about it, make fun of the peck mark on Jon’s butt, and then continue on like nothing happened.

More Likely Prediction:  Just due to time constraints with two more episodes remaining, it doesn’t look like we are going to have time for an epic battle at the wall.  With that being said, something is going to happen before the season ends involving Jon and who his allegiance actually lies with.  I think there will be a moment in the next couple of episodes that makes Jon choose between his love for Ygritte and his vow to the Night’s Watch.  It may even involve his family, especially if he finds Bran and Rickon (which can’t be far away) or protecting a friend who is a fellow Crow.  Jon must make a choice, and the repercussions of his choices will ride into Season 4.

Cersei and Loras:

One Sentence Recap:  As a result of Paw Paw Tywin’s concern with the lasting impression of the family name, he arranges the weddings of Tyrion and Sansa for hopeful control of the north (wedding accomplished) and Cersei and Loras for control of the Reach (wedding not yet accomplished).

Unlikely Prediction:  Cersei and Loras agree to move ahead with the wedding under the agreement that Lancel will be the ever-present third wheel of the marriage….. Cersei gets the front, Loras gets the back (or as they like to call it, The Lancel Sandwich).  Lancel of course objects, but to no avail.  All is good until Loras swallows Lancel’s sword which highly perturbs Cersei.  She in turn eats Loras.  End of marriage.

More Likely Prediction:  Cersei can’t deal with the thought of being with anyone else besides Jaime and makes an inside deal with Loras that he will join the King’s Guard and will still be granted rights to Highgarden when Tywin passes away.  Of course, she doesn’t keep this promise when all is said and done, which leads to another dramatic turn in Seasons to come.  Either way, I just don’t see this wedding happening.

Jaime and Brienne: 

Two Sentence Recap:  After traveling alone, the odd couple find themselves prisoners of Locke, where Jaime loses a hand and Brienne is forced to fight a bear.  After surviving both predicaments, our favorite duo are once again on their way to King’s Landing only this time on horseback and accompanied by Bolton’s men.

Unlikely Prediction:  Before arriving at King’s Landing, J&B have a moment of clarity, decide they are made for each other, kill Bolton’s men, and ride off into the sunset together never to be heard from again.

More Likely Prediction:  J&B arrive in King’s Landing for a reunion between the Lannisters and their long-lost Jaime.  But upon their return, they find some sort of tragic occurrence involving the King and Tywin or the King and Tyrion…. I can’t decide which.  One way or the other, the reunion will be bittersweet in some form or fashion.  The family reunion from hell is upon us.

Theon and Boy:

One Sentence Recap (because who needs two?):  Since the beginning of the season, Theon has been tortured.

Unlikely Prediction:  Theon escapes, reattaches his manhood, and finishes the “Two Nurses and a Patient” porn scene.

More Likely Prediction:  Theon gets tortured.  Again.

Side Note:  I know that many non-book readers are beyond being over the Theon story line this season, Ozzette included.  I for one think there is a lot more to this story, and it has simply been extended to keep Theon in the forefront of viewers minds either for a big event in the last couple of episodes or for the next season.  I would at least hope it is safe to assume that this seemingly prolonged torture sequence does have some significance, and as good as the show has been, I believe we all owe D&D the benefit of the doubt.

And finally…..

Stannis, Gendry, and the Red Woman:

Two Sentence Recap:  Melisandre vacated Dragonstone in search of Gendry and was successful in bringing him back and giving him a brief “Welcome to Dragonstone” ride only to ruin the moment by putting a leech in his briefs.  Stannis releases Davos from the dungeon so that he may be the voice of reason and witness the burning of the leeches containing Gendry’s blood.

Unlikely Prediction:  Stannis, Gendry, and Davos all realize that now they have all seen the Red Woman naked.  Stannis calls a boys-only meeting stating that no other man is to see her naked again except for him.   Davos says fine.  Gendry says can we at least finish what she started?  Stannis says “hell to the no you Bastard,” and yet another character on GoT loses his manhood.

More Likely Prediction:  This really involves the leeches more than anything else, and the importance of their grilling.  I see two possible purposes….

A.      The leeches were burned to give vision in the flames to Melisandre and Stannis in order to see the future of the named usurpers. Or……

B.      As a more serious result, the named usurpers are slowly cursed from the point of the burned leeches going forward, and are afflicted with some type of illness that will eventually kill them (or render them useless).  If this is the case, it would change the whole landscape of the battle for the Kingdoms, and the majority of the predictions above would be rendered useless as well.

Weddings?: I think we see two more before the Season ends, Edmure and Frey Daughter almost certainly, and one more.  Unfortunately, I don’t think it will be Lysa and Littlefinger.  Is it weird that I can’t wait to see the breast-feeding boy again?

Bold Death Predictions (in no particular order):

I think that at least two of the following six have an above average chance of meeting their doom before the end of the season.  There is justification for a few, and a few I just have a bad feeling about.  (Ozzette picked 3, and I picked 3).

1. Tywin:  I have reason to believe that Tywin might not make it and I am not quite sure why.  But, I do feel like there is a clash of power coming between he and Joffrey that may not end well for Paw Paw.  Joffrey does not like being told what to do, and the threat of someone having more control could be enough to push him over the edge.

2. Loras:  If the prediction above on Cersei/Loras is incorrect, this could be the most logical answer for Cersei not having to marry Loras.

3. Edmure:  See the Arya prediction above.

4. Ygritte:  This would be directly related to choices of Jon Snow mentioned above.  I would hate to see her go.

5. Jorah:  Again, out of all of them, I hope I am most incorrect on this one.

6. Joffrey:  His death is likely inevitable.  But I really don’t think we send the end of his reign just yet.

Laugh Away My Sullied Friends!  Hope this gives the Sullied some off-week entertainment and the Un’s some food for thought.

And please, once again….. no spoilery!  No “Oz, you are completely right about this particular story, but completely wrong about that particular story” kind of statements.  And please, for the love of the Seven, don’t act like you are Unsullied if you are not!!  Thanks in advance.

Until Friday for a Looking Forward Ep. 29, enjoy your long weekend if you are lucky enough to have one, and please drink responsibly if that is your thing. 

And may there be peace in your realm.  -Oz

A trio of absolutely stunning mudskippers from the Japan Times. And some good news for a change: there are actually more of them than there used to be!

Late yesterday, NASA turned the 230-foot (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California towards Asteroid 1998 QE2 as it was heading towards its closest approach to Earth, and they got a big surprise: the asteroid is a binary system. 1998 QE2 itself is 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) in diameter, and the newly found orbiting moon is about 600 meters in diameter.

The radar images were taken were taken on May 29, 2013, when the asteroid was about 3.75 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth.

“Radar really helps to pin down the orbit of an asteroid as well as the size of it,” said Paul Chodas of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program office, speaking during a JPL webcast about this asteroid on May 30. “We now know our size estimates were pretty good, but finding it was a binary was surprising.”

NASA said that about 16 percent of asteroids are binary or even triple systems.

Each of the images above are snippets of about 5 minutes of radar data. You can watch a movie of the data, below:
(...)
Read the rest of Surprise! Earth Passing Asteroid 1998 QE2 Has a Moon (608 words)

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© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. | Permalink | 13 comments |
Post tags: asteroid, Asteroid 1998 QE2, Goldstone Radar

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There is a service called shitsenders.com that will anonymously ship your enemies a quart or gallon of cow, elephant or gorilla shit, your choice.

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Sir Patrick Stewart set the Internet on fire yesterday when he tweeted the above picture and declared that he was eating his “very first pizza ‘slice.’” I mean, how could that have been possible? I tend to assume that everyone with a British accent is extremely classy and distinguished and only eats at fine dining establishments where the waiters wear tuxedos and have pencil-thin mustaches, and even I found the whole thing preposterous. Everyone eats pizza. Hell, you can eat pizza by accident. (“Oopsies, I slipped and fell and ate some pizza. Again.”) No, there had to be an explanation. My entire worldview depended on it.

And, luckily, there was. Kind of. But it’s somehow even more confusing than the idea of a 72-year-old man who never ate pizza. It turns out that the confusion all hinged on the word “slice,” as Stewart explained to Vulture earlier today.

So, I get that you’ve had pizza before, just not a slice of pizza …

That’s correct. People misunderstood. There was a school of thought that I had eaten my first pizza, but of course how could that possibly be true? I would have had to have stayed locked up in a cellar. But nevertheless, this was my first slice of pizza, which I was only eating because my fiancée and I were a little hung-over yesterday morning and she said what we need is pizza and a soothing drink — and she was right. It solved the problem. But, in fact, it was my first slice, and when it was brought over to me, my first comment was “There’s no knife and fork.” Of course, I was mocked for thinking that I could eat a pizza slice with a knife and fork.

Wait. What? He’s had pizza, but not in slice form, that he’s always eaten with a knife and fork? Does Patrick Stewart think lasanga is pizza? I must know more.

So, in all those years, you never, you know, walked by a pizza place, you’re hungry, you decide to go in and try a slice? How come that never happened?

I know, it’s hard to understand, isn’t it? But, you know, I would go in there and order a pizza and eat a whole pizza. It was the concept of the slice that I had never encountered before.

So here’s what I think is going on here. I think Patrick Stewart means this is the first time he’s ever ordered, like, a single slice of pizza instead of a whole pie. He’s probably trying to explain that he typically orders one large round pizza (or many large round pizzas, if he has company over) and then everyone shares and they eat the entire thing using knives and forks because he’s a knight of the British Empire and he can presumably eat pizza how he pleases. Fine. I can see that.

But if you think I don’t have a vivid, crystal clear image in my head right now of Sir Patrick Stewart waltzing into Sal’s Pizza and Grinders or whatever, ordering a large, uncut pizza, and devouring the whole thing by himself using a plastic fork and knife as all the other customers look on in amazement, then brother, you are misssssstaken.

Christopher Lee é com certeza um ator clássico, versátil e icônico do cinema mundial. Ele é a face mais conhecida do Conde Drácula justamente por sua interpretação marcante e expressão impactante. Também já interpretou vários papéis de peso, tais como Conde Dooku (epa), de “Star Wars” e Scaramanga, vilão de “007 – O Homem da Pistola de Ouro”. Ah, e já ia me esquecendo, ele também fez Saruman, na trilogia de “O Senhor dos Anéis”.

Hoje, fazendo 91 anos, Christopher Lee jogou mais uma pérola que surpreendeu todos nós, probres mortais: o lançamento de seu álbum 100% Metal, “Charlemagne – The Omens of Death”. Isso porque em 2010 ele tinha lançado seu primeiro álbum, “Charlemagne”, de metal sinfônico. Para fazer os arranjos de guitarra, o metaleiro Christopher Lee chamou Richard Faulker, guitarrista do Judas Priest. Você pode escutar algumas faixas clicando aqui.

Este lançamento aumentou o nível de fodísmo de Lee em uns cem pontos pelo menos! E aí Ian McKellen, vai só ficar realizando casamentos ou vai lançar um álbum de Punk Rock?

“Uma cidade sem classe média” – é assim que Veronica Mars descreve sua Neptune, Califórnia. Na cidade fictícia criada por Rob Thomas, a separação definitiva de classes aconteceu graças à empresa Kane Software, que revolucionou a transmissão e exibição de vídeos na internet. Jake Kane se tornou um bilionário, e essa boa fortuna se estendeu a seus funcionários e investidores. Não é difícil imaginar a outra metade de Neptune: ao lado de qualquer bairro nobre, orbitam vizinhanças carentes que trabalham nas mansões.

Mas, para pensar o mundo sem classe média, precisamos primeiro ter uma ideia sobre o que é a classe média. E não existe uma fórmula definitiva, nem mesmo para os economistas.

No que depender da Secretaria de Assuntos Estratégicos da Presidência da República brasileira, ser da classe média é ter renda per capita entre R$ 441 e R$ 1019. Essa modéstia não fica só no governo: há alguns anos, editores dos jornais gratuitos de São Paulo me diziam sem constrangimento que seus impressos eram consumidos pela classe A tanto visada pelos publicitários, e essa classe A não exigia muito mais do que R$ 2000 por capita.

Para os economistas¹, existem duas formas mais comuns de se desenhar a classe média. Na primeira, chama-se “classe média” os 60% da população que ficam no meio – entre os 20% mais pobres e os 20% mais ricos. Nessa classificação, a classe média sempre representa ? de uma população.

O segundo cálculo opta por determinar as fronteiras da classe média, fazendo com seu tamanho não seja fixo. Para isso, é feito o cálculo da mediana² da renda per capita. Pertencem à classe média todos os que estiverem compreendidos no intervalo entre 75% e 125% desse valor³.

Mas classe, diriam os economistas, é uma preocupação dos sociólogos. E nem a mera informação da renda, nem o que poderia ser escrito neste texto seriam suficientes para determinar quem pertence a esse grupo. Podemos falar em termos do número de aparelhos de televisão e de geladeiras em uma casa, podemos falar em grau de escolaridade, podemos falar no tipo de profissão, podemos falar no grau de prestígio que todas essas características representam – a definição de uma classe é mais complexa.

O senso comum, no entanto, diz que a classe média é aquela que não tem grandes fortunas, mas tampouco tem grandes dívidas. A classe média só conquista seus sonhos de consumo com um financiamento ou com as parcelas do cartão de crédito, mas evita (na maior parte das vezes) a inadimplência.

Em qualquer uma dessas definições, Neptune teria uma classe média – e os próprios Mars seriam bons candidatos para esse grupo. Mas vamos ficar com uma definição dos economistas – porque elas são mais objetivas – e, entre elas, com a segunda – porque ela define a classe média por quem ela é, e não por quem ela não é.

Pensando a classe média como pessoas que têm renda um tanto abaixo ou um tanto acima do ponto médio da população, uma análise simples pode ser feita: quanto maior a quantidade de pessoas dentro desse intervalo, mais igualitária é uma sociedade⁴.

É isso o que Veronica diz quando fala nessa estreita e quase inexistente fatia de classe média. Não se trata da quantidade de novos-ricos dos CEPs terminados em 09 ou do quanto é necessário ser pobre para aceitar um emprego na mansão dos Echolls – Neptune é uma cidade de diferenças e abismos.

Para Rob Thomas e sua equipe de roteiristas, a Neptune sem classe média tem vantagens narrativas para o tom noir da série.

Os milionários – no plural – garantem um número razoável de suspeitos e de culpados para tantas conspirações. Os milhões de dólares transmitem para os personagens e telespectadores aquela ideia de acima-da-lei, justificando as transgressões legais de Veronica em sua busca por verdades e – por que não dizer? – justiça. Do outro lado da cidade, existe espaço para uma máfia irlandesa e uma gangue de motoqueiros. Existem suspeitos que são suspeitos apenas porque a polícia do xerife Lamb prefere prender alguém sem qualquer influência política ou econômica.

Mas não existe nada de branco e preto em “Veronica Mars”. PCHers podem ser melhores que 09ers, mas Duncan Kane também pode ser melhor que Wanda Varner. O que existe em Neptune e, por consequência, em “Veronica Mars” é uma diferença tão grande que tramas impensáveis para a minha cidade e para a sua cidade se tornam verossímeis.

Esse retrato de Neptune torna-se mais interessante porque o encolhimento da classe média é um fenômeno real. Citando dados do censo norte-americano, o jornal Washington Post destacou que a classe média formada por 60% da população detinha em 2011 46,6% da renda nacional – contra 50% da renda total em 1990⁵.

Em Neptune, o encolhimento da classe média resultou do enriquecimento rápido da antiga classe média da cidade; nos EUA de 2010, a situação foi intensificada pela crise econômica. A recuperação das classes mais altas vem sendo mais rápida do que a da população média, e muitos empregos desapareceram aparentemente para sempre. Qualquer que seja o motivo, a falta da classe média tem o mesmo efeito: o isolamento quase segregacionista e cada vez mais aprofundado das classes.

Bem-vindos a Neptune, 2014.

1. Uma explicação mais elaborada e que não abusa do seu tempo livre pode ser encontrada em Atkinson, A.B., Brandolini, A. On the identification of the ‘middle class’. In: Working Papers 217, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, 2011.
2. Em estatística, a mediana não é a média. Ela é o ponto médio da amostra ou da população, de modo que metade dos valores seja maior que a mediana e a outra metade seja inferior.
3. Há divergências sobre qual deve ser esse intervalo – alguns colocam o limite superior em 150% ou até 200% da mediana.
4. Utilizando a outra definição da classe média, a desigualdade fica evidente se o total da renda pertencente aos 60% que ficam entre os pobres e ricos encolhe em relação ao total de renda da população.
5. Outra análise indicando essa tendência pode ser encontrada em Foster, J. E.; Wolfson, M. C. Polarization and the decline of the middle class: Canada and the U.S. In: The Journal of Economic Inequality, 2010.

Falhei.

On the set of Rocky IV, Lundgren (Ivan Drago) punched Sylvester Stallone so hard that he had to be sent to the hospital, where they thought he had been hit by a car.

source

On the “powerful blend of instruction, encouragement, and constant practice.”

“The trick to creativity … is to identify your own peculiar talent and then to settle down to work with it for a good long time,” observed Denise Shekerjian in reflecting on her insightful interviews with MacArthur “genius” grantees. “Success is the product of the severest kind of mental and physical application,” attested Thomas Edison. “It is the man who carefully advances step by step, with his mind becoming wider and wider … who is bound to succeed in the greatest degree,” Alexander Graham Bell proclaimed. And yet our culture continues to perpetuate the notion that genius is a “God”-given blessing.

In The Genius in All of Us: New Insights into Genetics, Talent, and IQ (public library), David Shenk presents a rigorously researched blend of historical evidence and scientific data to debunk the myth that genius is a special gift serendipitously bestowed upon the chosen few and shows, instead, that it is the product of consistent, concentrated effort, applied in the direction of one’s natural inclination. But beyond the familiar argument for the power of process, Shenk stresses the importance of early childhood experience in recognizing and cultivating the inklings of talent, and building the right framework for achievement. He gives “the mystifying boy genius” Mozart as a prime example:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart [was] alleged to be an instant master performer at age three and a brilliant composer at age five. His breathtaking musical gifts were said to have sprouted from nowhere, and his own father promoted him as the “miracle which God let be born in Salzburg.”

The reality about Mozart turns out to be far more interesting and far less mysterious. His early achievements — while very impressive, to be sure — actually make good sense considering his extraordinary upbringing. And his later undeniable genius turns out to be a wonderful advertisement for the power of process. Mozart was bathed in music from well before his birth, and his childhood was quite unlike any other. His father, Leopold Mozart, was an intensely ambitious Austrian musician, composer, and teacher who had gained wide acclaim with the publication of the instruction book A Treatise on the Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing. For a while, Leopold had dreamed of being a great composer himself. But on becoming a father, he began to shift his ambitions away from his own unsatisfying career and onto his children — perhaps, in part, because his career had already hit a ceiling: he was [assistant music director]; the top spot would be unavailable for the foreseeable future.

Uniquely situated, and desperate to make some sort of lasting mark on music, Leopold began his family musical enterprise even before Wolfgang’s birth, focusing first on his daughter Nannerl.

[…]

Then came Wolfgang. Four and a half years younger than his sister, the tiny boy got everything Nannerl got — only much earlier and even more intensively. Literally from his infancy, he was the classic younger sibling soaking up his big sister’s singular passion. As soon as he was able, he sat beside her at the harpsichord and mimicked notes that she played. Wolfgang’s first pings and plucks were just that. But with a fast-developing ear, deep curiosity and a tidal wave of family know-how, he was able to click into an accelerated process of development.

But buried in Shenk’s argument for the power of nurture is also a subtle but menacing dark side that speaks to the power of how social norms and gender expectations shape the investment in nurture:

As Wolfgang became fascinated with playing music, his father became fascinated with his toddler son’s fascination — and was soon instructing him with an intensity that far eclipsed his efforts with Nannerl. Not only did Leopold openly give preferred attention to Wolfgang over his daughter; he also made a career-altering decision to more or less shrug off his official duties in order to build an even more promising career for his son. This was not a quixotic adventure. Leopold’s calculated decision made reasonable financial sense in two ways: First, Wolfgang’s youth made him a potentially lucrative attraction. Second, as a male, Wolfgang had a promising, open-ended future musical career. As a woman in eighteenth-century Europe, Nannerl was severely limited in that regard.

From age three, then, Wolfgang had an entire family driving him to excel with a powerful blend of instruction, encouragement, and constant practice. He was expected to be the pride and financial engine of the family, and he did not disappoint.

How many genius-level female composers never received this “powerful blend” we’ll never know. But the bigger point in The Genius in All of Us resonates loud and clear: To reap the fruits of genius, we must plant the seeds of practice and process.

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“It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.” – Nigel Tufnel, This is Spinal Tap.  

The Gaboon viper is a fairly docile creature, and that’s where the good news ends. It also has the longest fangs of any snake—2.2-inch-long weapons that swivel forwards like switchblades. The fangs are connected to such huge glands that they deliver more venom than any other snake—a cocktail of toxins that thin the blood, trigger massive internal bleeding, and can stop hearts.

And to make things much, much worse, the Gaboon viper is virtually impossible to see.

From above, its head looks like a dead leaf. Its five-foot-long body is patterned with rectangles and hourglasses, and shaded in cream, yellow, brown and black. Against the leaf litter of its forest home, the viper simply fades away.

Now, Marlene Spinner from Kiel University has discovered one of the secrets to the Gaboon viper’s exceptional camouflage: The black on its body is really, really black. Not just black, but black. Ultra-black. None more black.

These dark patches also have the texture of velvet, so they’re evenly black from every possible direction. There’s no gloss to them, which creates an illusion of depth. The patches don’t seem to be part of the same surface as the rest of the viper. This, together with the geometric shapes and sharply contrasting colours, break up the snake’s outline and aid its camouflage.

Spinner studied the West African Gaboon viper (Bitis rhinoceros). It’s one of two snakes that people thought were the same, until genetic studies showed that they are dissimilar enough to qualify as separate species.

She looked at the snake’s scales under a powerful electron microscope, which requires samples to be covered in a thin layer of gold. As a result, the pale parts of the viper’s scales developed a light metallic sheen. But the black areas still looked black. That’s a clue—it means that the colour isn’t just produced by a dark pigment, but also by the structures of the scales themselves.

Spinner caught a glimpse of these extraordinarily intricate structures down the microscope. The dark parts of the scale are covered in small ridges, like leaves standing on end (a, below). There are around 1,900 of these leaves in every square millimetre of scale, and each is just 30 micrometres (millionths of a metre) tall.

Spinner zoomed in a thousand times closer, and saw that each leaf was itself covered in a network of even thinner ridges, each just 60 nanometres (billionths of a metre) thick (c). They form a branching pattern like a fingerprint (b). And even the areas between the leaves are covered in hair-like projections (d). The gaboon viper’s black scales contain the most intricate of patterns, in spaces barely wider than a human hair.

When light hits the dark scales, it gets repeatedly reflected and scattered by the tiny leaves and ridges. As it bounces back and forth, it gets increasingly absorbed by dark pigments. In the end, less than 11 percent of any incoming light gets reflected away. This is why the viper’s black patches look so damn black, and evenly so from any viewing angle.

Other closely related vipers don’t use the same nano-scale trick, but there’s a butterfly that does. The Ulysses butterfly (Papilio ulysses) has wings with eye-catching electric blue centres, but their edges are ultra-black for the same reason as the Gaboon viper’s scales. They have a hierarchy of ridges upon ridges that repeatedly reflect incoming light onto absorbing pigments.

Spinner suggests that these tricks could be useful to engineers who work with machines that want to retain as much light as possible, such as solar panels. Admittedly, we have already created blacker-than-black materials that surpass even the viper’s scales. The current record-holder is a surface covered in carbon nanotubes that reflects just 0.045 percent of the light that falls on it. However, it’s extremely fragile. The Gaboon viper might reflect more light, but its black surfaces can cope with months of slithering through rough undergrowth.

Reference: Spinner, Kovalev, Gorb & Westhoff. 2013. Snake velvet black: Hierarchical micro and nanostructure enhances dark colouration in Bitis rhinoceros. Scientific Reports. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep01846

Also: Credit to Alok Jha for the Spinal Tap reference

More on structural colours:

• The world’s shiniest living thing is an African fruit that looks like a pointillist bauble
• A shiny dinosaur –four-winged Microraptor gets colour and gloss
• Camouflaged communication – the secret signals of squid
• Forget butterflies – wasps and flies have hidden rainbows in their wings
• Bird of paradise creates colourful dance with microscopic mirrors in its feathers

It’s not often that scientists make people watch the first episode of 24 in the name of science. It’s even rarer that they pick Jack Bauer’s exploits because they wanted to show volunteers something “more true to life”. Then again, as Jason Chan dryly says, “Some of the earlier episodes were not as far-fetched as the later ones”.

Chan’s study is the latest to show how easy it is to disrupt our memories, and supplant what we think we know with misinformation. In this case, he and colleague Jessica LaPaglia from Iowa State University showed volunteers the pilot episode of 24 and then selectively rewrote some of their memories of the show’s events. For example, some of the volunteers came to believe that an assassin (Mandy!) knocked out a flight attendant with a stun gun, when she actually used a hypodermic syringe.

It wasn’t just a simple matter of saying Mandy used a stun gun. That wouldn’t have worked. Instead, Chan and LaPaglia fed their volunteers with false information immediately after they had actively remembered what they had seen. Then, and only then, did the new memories overwrite their old ones.

The trick relies on a quirk of memory that has come to light in recent years. I’ve written about it before:

Every time we bring back an old memory, we run the risk of changing it. It’s more like opening a document on a computer – the old information enters a surprisingly vulnerable state when it can be edited, overwritten, or even deleted. It takes a while for the memory to become strengthened anew, through a process called reconsolidation. Memories aren’t just written once, but every time we remember them.

This means, somewhat ironically, that the remembering something creates a critical window in which memories can be erased or manipulated. Many scientists have done this in rodents and humans using drugs or conflicting information. But these experiments usually manipulate single simple memories, such as a drug craving or a fearful association between a colour and an electric shock.

Chan and LaPaglia have now used the reconsolidation window to change declarative memories—facts and knowledge that we consciously recall. “We have people forming a very complex memory of a story that lasts 40-50 minutes and changing specific details within that larger context,” says Chan. “This is what’s new. It’s a pretty important step for demonstrating the fundamental importance [of reconsolidation] in humans.”

After showing the pilot episode of 24 to 146 volunteers, Chan and LaPaglia asked them to either play Tetris or answer memory-testing questions about the video. Twenty minutes later, they listened to a short audio recording that supposedly recapped the episode, but that secretly changed some details—for example, swapping Mandy’s syringe for a stun gun. Five minutes later, everyone took a final true-or-false test about what they had originally seen.

In this final test, the volunteers were worse at accurately recalling details that were changed in the audio recap, but only if they had previously answered questions that made them recall the video. Those who played Tetris were unaffected.

So, taking the quiz destabilised the volunteers’ memories of what they were quizzed on, paving the way for the false recap to mess with their knowledge. This worked even when volunteers correctly remembered what happened in the episode during the first quiz—the incorrect audio still changed what they thought they knew.

Through repetitions and variations of this basic experiment, Chan and LaPaglia showed that the effect lasts a long time, even if the final test followed the audio recap by a day rather than 5 minutes. But for the trick to work, the false information needs to come quickly and be very specific. If 48 hours passed between the first quiz and the audio recap, rather than 20 minutes, the original memories stay unchanged. And if the recap involved a different scenario—say, an assassin knocking out a flight attendant in the context of drug trafficking rather than terrorism—the new info never overwrote the original memory. This explains why we’re not constantly upsetting our old memories even though we’re constantly exposed to new information.

Chan and LaPaglia also suspect that people need to believe that the new information accurately represents the old set, and not if they consciously detect a factual discrepancy. “If they think there’s misleading information in here, they’ll be much less susceptible to that effect,” says Chan.

Other studies on reconsolidation have found similar results, but this one shows that memory manipulation isn’t limited to the simple products of basic conditioning, but also more complicated bits of knowledge. It supports the work of psychologists like Elizabeth Loftus, who have shown how easy it is to implant people with false memories.

It also fits with a growing body of evidence showing that, despite what people believe, eyewitness testimony is often seriously unreliable. “Say you’ve been questioned by an investigator and you recall the event,” says Chan. “In the next 15-20 minutes, you could run into another eyewitness or overhear investigators talking to each other. Some inaccurate information could update your memory.”

More positively, the study could have implications for treating conditions that involve unwanted memories, such as phobias or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As Chan and LaPaglia, “Humans are notoriously inept at suppressing unwanted thoughts.” If we try not to think about something, we usually end up thinking about it all the more. Instead, it may be more productive to actively remember what’s troubling us and reinterpret that in a new light, relying on reconsolidation to remake the old memories in a less disqueting way.

Acceptance and commitment therapies for PTSD work along similar lines, but it’s often assumed that they help people to put the past behind them or to disconnect their experiences from negative feelings. But Chan and LaPaglia suggest that such techniques might actually be exploiting the reconsolidation effect to actually rewrite the past, rather than just severing our connections from it.

Reference: Chan & LaPaglia. 2013. Impairing existing declarative memory in humans by disrupting reconsolidation. PNAS http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1218472110

PS: I love that reference 55 of this paper is “24 12:00 a.m.–1:00 a.m. [dvd]. Fox Television Studio, producer; 60 min, sound, color”. And reference 56 is “Neave P (2009) Tetris N-Blox (Tetris Holding, LLC, Hawaii).”

More on memory:

• Rewriting fearful memories by bringing them back to mind
• Scientists create mice that automatically label new memories for easy reactivation
• Five myths about memory (and why they matter in court)
• Memory improves when neurons fire in youthful surroundings
• The extended mind – how Google affects our memories
• Beta-blocker drug erases the emotion of fearful memories
• Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers
• The guardians of fear – molecules that provide safety nets for scary memories
• Erasing a memory reveals the neurons that encode it
• Drugs and stimulating environments reverse memory loss in brain-damaged mice

More on memory:

·         Rewriting fearful memories by bringing them back to mind

·         Scientists create mice that automatically label new memories for easy reactivation

·         Five myths about memory (and why they matter in court)

·         Memory improves when neurons fire in youthful surroundings

·         The extended mind – how Google affects our memories       

·         Beta-blocker drug erases the emotion of fearful memories

·         Memories can be strengthened while we sleep by providing the right triggers

·         The guardians of fear – molecules that provide safety nets for scary memories

·         Erasing a memory reveals the neurons that encode it

·         Drugs and stimulating environments reverse memory loss in brain-damaged mice

Where Fox News wants its viewers to fear almighty God, CNN wants theirs to thank Him (or Her, but c’mon). Yesterday, while interviewing Oklahoma tornado survivor Rebecca Vitsmun, with literal broken homes filling the background, Jars of Clay superfan Wolf Blitzer said, “We’re happy you’re here. You guys did a great job. You’ve gotta thank the Lord, right? Do you thank the Lord for that split-second decision?” Vitsmun’s response: “I…I’m actually an atheist.” If you look closely, you can actually pin-point the second when Wolf’s heart rips in half.

This…is CNNew Testament.

(Via Deadspin)

The post Wolf Blitzer Asked An Atheist Tornado Survivor If She Thanked The Lord. She Did Not. appeared first on UPROXX.

empire-of-dust:

The following is an actual e-mail I sent to Cartoon Network through their website.

Hi. I need some help with “Formula Cartoon”. 

I was playing it with my 4 years old son today, and something awkward happened. We gathered some GP and XP and decided to change our avatar’s costume. We opened the t-shirts menu and there was this awesome Gumball t-shirt that my kid really loved at first sight.

However, when we tried to buy it, a pop-up window warned us that we could not buy that t-shirt because we were not of the right gender.

My son was terribly disappointed. He asked me why we couldn’t get the t-shirt he wanted. I tried to explain, but I could barely speak, I was so shocked. Then my son asked me if we could change the gender of our character just so we could buy the t-shirt we wanted.

So, first of all, I ask you to explain that to me, in a way my son can understand. How should I explain to a 4 years old boy he is not allowed to buy a virtual t-shirt for his virtual avatar, simply because the t-shirt is pink? How could I possibly turn that into something logic enough for a child to understand? Because, really, I’m 34 years old, I’ve got a PhD, and my brain simply cannot process that information. I am not capable of understanding why a talented group of programmers would go out of their way only to develop a restraint on a game so it will not allow male avatars to acquire pink t-shirts. It is the most absurd thing that ever happened to me in 30 years of playing video games.

Maybe you could come up with a way for the avatars to change their genders mid-game? That would be awesome. Or maybe even create more than two genders we can chose from? Because, really, if Ben 10 can turn into one gazillion of disgusting aliens, why can’t my boy turn into a girl every once in a while? The avatar could turn from boy to girl to boy again DURING THE RACE, giving some kind of crazy bonus. That would be awesome!

By the way, if you ever decide to sell some actual t-shirts with Gumball’s face in it, me and my son would like to know about it and buy the hell out of them. Because we really love Gumball, and we love Cartoon Network most of the time, and we really don’t give a fuck if the t-shirt is pink or magenta or red or black or golden. After all, Gumball being cyan, he looks GREAT on a magenta/pink t-shirt.

I just hope there won’t be a police officer inside of the clothing store to prevent us from buying it.

Please, be more careful with your games. Children hate homophobia.

Thank you very much for your attention.

Daniel L. Werneck, PhD

Federal University of Belo Horizonte

this.

Bowling Ball

I've been told that if the Earth were shrunk down to the size of a bowling ball, it would be smoother than said bowling ball. My question is, what would a bowling ball look like if it were blown up to the size of the Earth?

—Seth C.

A good, professional-quality bowling ball is smoother than the Earth.

Phil Plait, of Bad Astronomy, took a look at the claim that the Earth was smoother than a billiard ball. He concluded that the Earth was smoother but less round, based on published billiard ball roundness tolerances. However, he couldn’t find any information on the size and shape of a billiard ball’s pits and bumps.

Fortunately for us, there are people who digitally scan bowling ball surfaces.

These scans (along with various measurements of ball roughness^[1]) tell us that a high-end bowling ball is quite smooth. If blown up to the scale of the Earth, the ridges and bumps^[2] would be between 10 and 200 meters high, and the peaks would be between one and three kilometers apart:

By Earth standards, this is quite smooth; our highest mountains are 40 times higher.

What would this bowling ball world (we’ll call it “Lebowski”) be like?

For starters, bowling balls are a lot less dense than rock, so Lebowski’s surface gravity would be a quarter the strength of Earth’s:

It would also (at first) have no atmosphere.

The finger holes would be about a thousand kilometers across and a few thousand kilometers deep.

On Earth, holes this big would expose the molten interior. But Lebowski doesn’t have a molten interior.

The Earth’s core is hot for two reasons: It’s still glowing from the heat of all the dust collapsing together when it formed, and it’s full of radioactive metals. Lebowski wouldn’t have either of these, so its core would start out cold.

The holes would be far too big to hold themselves open against gravity; On that scale, the polymers in the bowling ball would behave more like a liquid. In the space of about half an hour, the holes would undergo a slow-motion collapse.

As they collapsed, the material around the holes would heat to a glow. At the center of the hole, a white-hot jet of charred hydrocarbons would fountain outward into space.

When it was over, Lebowski would be left with massive scars, each marking the location where an abyss collapsed to form a molten sea.

And now, thanks to this question, whenever I look at the Moon, I’ll notice the Sea of Tranquility, the Sea of Serenity, and the Sea of Crisis, and I’ll think: Finger holes.

But that’s just, like, my opinion, man.

A gente já tinha falado do Rock’n'Roll Burger há alguns meses, nesse post aqui. Na época, a Carol Sanches havia nos comentado comigo e Thaís sobre esse lugar, que era uma delícia e tal. A gente ficou de voltar em uma visita futura à terra da garoa.

Em março a Thaís esteve em SP com a Faby, ex-Gordelícias, e jantaram por lá. Thaís voltou contando maravilhas e eu precisava conferir tudo de pertinho. Acabei aproveitando a ida pra SP, pro encontrinho da Nigella e marquei com a Carol e um grupo de amigos do coração. A gente aproveitou a farra do boi pra provar os carros-chefes da casa. Preparem-se para imagens fortes: muita carne e queijo rolando na sua telinha em 3, 2, 1!

Escolhi o Fat Elvis porque estava morrendo de fome. Ele vem com duas carnes, bacon, cheddar, queijo prato e maionese da casa. Também vinha salada (alface e tomate) mas sou gordinha safada e abri mão dos vegetais. Tudo isso acompanhada de batatinhas fritas felizes.

Os amiguinhos Jessica, Isadora e Leo (marido da Carol) pediram o Fat Elvis versão completa. É esse bonitão da foto. Só de fazer esse post já estou salivando…

Carol pediu o Tremendão: hambúrguer de picanha, queijo gorgonzola, cebolas caramelizadas e saladinha. Na foto a gente só vê alface mas acredite, por baixo dessa abundância de folhas há um senhor recheio.

Não tá afim de hambúrguer? Que tal pedir um dos aperitivos da casa? O Alek mandou ver nas Hot Wings, asinhas e coxinhas de frango apimentadas, que vem acompanhadas de molho barbecue.

Mas não pensem que tudo no Rock’n'Roll Burger é pra carnívoro. Tem um hambúrguer muito do gostoso feito especialmente para os vegetarianos. Trata-se do Indie Burger: feito com quinua, abobrinha e cenoura + queijo prato, molho especial e saladinha.

Saímos todos super satisfeitos da hamburgueria, que tem uma decoração bacaníssima, sem falar das mesas de pinball e das televisões que transmitem futebol americano ou basquete. A trilha sonora do lugar também é perfeita pra quem curte rock (indie, clássicos… toca de tudo).

Se você vai com um grupo de amigos, vale a pena fazer uma reserva, assim não rola estresse na hora de arrumar uma mesa aconchegante para todos. Na próxima ida, vou experimentar o milkshake! Anotem aí!

Rock’n’Roll Burger - www.rocknrollburger.com.br

Rua Augusta, 538, São Paulo – (11) 3661-1500
De terça-feira a quinta-feira, das 18h à 01h, sexta-feira e sábado das 19h até as 5.
Domingos das 19h às 01h.

Welcome to Reynholm Industries!

In exchange for Pepsi products, Russia gave Pepsi 17 submarines, a cruiser, a frigate, and a destroyer.

source

rosalarian:

Angelina Jolie had a double mastectomy, in case you hadn’t heard. How dare she remove those ticking time bombs from her chest, amiright? Like, hasn’t she learned by now that her body is public domain and we all get to vote on what she does with it? Sheesh, how selfish can ya get.

‘tsundoku’ - the Japanese word for buying books & not reading them, leaving them to pile up.

“you want me to finish him?” ” no no no, we got it.”

Insira seu cartão, diz a tela do caixa automático do banco. Insiro.

Retire seu cartão. Retiro.

Você está usando um cartão com chip. Insira-o novamente e só o retire quando a operação estiver completa. Insiro novamente, escolho a operação. Retire seu cartão. Retiro.

Insire seu cartão novamente. Um pouco desconfiado, insiro.

Retire o seu cartão. Retiro. Insira mais uma vez. Insiro. Retire-o novamente. Retiro.

Mais uma inseridinha. Olhando constrangido para os lados, insiro. Retire… Retiro. Isso, vai… Insere de novo… Insiro. Retira de novo… Retiro. Insere… Insiro. Vai… Não para… Não para…

Retiro o cartão, saio do banco e procuro outra agência.

I don’t like large numbers without context. Phrases like “they called for a $21 billion budget cut” or “the probe will travel 60 billion miles” or “a 150,000-ton ship ran aground” don’t mean very much to me on their own. Is that a large ship? Does 60 billion miles take you outside the Solar System? How much is $21 billion compared to the overall budget? (That last question is  why I made my money chart.)

A friend of mine, Glen Chiacchieri, has created a Chrome extension to help solve this problem: Dictionary of Numbers. It searches the text in your browser for quantities it understands and inserts contextual statements in brackets. It might turn the phrase “315 million people” into “315 million people [≈ the population of the United States]”.

As Glen explains, he once read an article about US wildfires which mentioned that the largest fire of the year had burned “300,000 acres.” This didn’t mean much to Glen:

I have no idea how much 300,000 acres is […] But we need to understand this number to answer the obvious question: how much of the United States was on fire? This is why I made Dictionary of Numbers.

Dictionary of Numbers helpfully informs me that 300,000 acres is about the area of LA or Hong Kong.

Wolfram|Alpha provides a lookup service like this, but you have to load the site and type in the quantity you’re curious about, which I never remember to do. (It’s also often short on good points of comparison.)

Dictionary of Numbers is a new project, so it’s got its share of glitches and rendering hiccups; it’s very much a work in progress. You can submit bug reports, feedback, and suggestions for data sources via a link on the project’s website.

I think these kinds of tools are a great idea, and I want to encourage them. Intelligence is all about context, and when computers get better at providing it, they make us smarter.

The extension can even be surprisingly funny, like when it seems to be making an oblique suggestion for how to solve a problem—e.g. “The telescope has been criticized for its budget of $200 million [≈ Mitt Romney net worth].” It can also come across as unexpectedly judgmental. Glen told me about complaint he got from a user: “I installed your extension and then forgot about it … until I logged into my bank account. Apparently my total balance is equal to the cost of a low-end bicycle. Thanks.”

You can get Dictionary of Numbers here.

O designer brazuca Billy Butcher (o mesmo que fez imagens de celebridades como se fossem o Batman), criou versões da Liga da Justiça inspiradas nos anos 80, com vários rostos de ícones do Pós-Punk e New Wave. Temos Morrisey como Superman (acima), Flash Devo, Aquaman Billy Idol, Robert Smith Elástico e por ai vai.

Se você quiser comprar uma camisa com uma dessas ilustrações (e eu acho que vão vender pacas), basta clicar aqui. Imagino qual será a próxima… Vingadores Punk Rock?

Fonte: Laughing Squid

It turns out that if you ask the right questions in just the right way, some men will actually tell you that they're rapists. They'll just…admit it.


The key is, don't use the word rape. Just ask them what they've done.


Researchers asked 1,882 men: "Have you ever tried to have oral sex with someone by using (or threatening to use) physical force—twisting their arm, holding them down, etc.—if they did not cooperate?"


and: "Have you ever had sexual intercourse with someone, even though they didn't want to, because they were too intoxicated to resist your advances?"


120 answered yes.


(That's rape.)


1,882 men…


120 rapists.


They admitted to a total of 483 rapes and attempted rapes. 483!


Whoa.

maymay:

“Repeat Rape: How do they get away with it?”, Part 1 of 2. (link to Part 2)

Sources:

1. College Men: Repeat Rape and Multiple Offending Among Undetected Rapists,Lisak and Miller, 2002 [PDF, 12 pages]
2. Navy Men: Lisak and Miller’s results were essentially duplicated in an even larger study (2,925 men): Reports of Rape Reperpetration by Newly Enlisted Male Navy Personnel, McWhorter, 2009 [PDF, 16 pages]

By dark-side-of-the-room, who writes:

These infogifs are provided RIGHTS-FREE for noncommercial purposes. Repost them anywhere. In fact, repost them EVERYWHERE. No need to credit. Link to the L&M study if possible.

Knowledge is a seed; sow it.