Adam Victor Brandizzi

tastefullyoffensive:

[via]

E essa tira finge ser boa quando na verdade ela é bem ruim.

Papai, cadê os do Kierkegaard?

Midvale, UT – A Chili’s restaurant waitress fixed a “broken cheeseburger” for an upset autistic girl. The little act of patience and kindness brought a huge smile to the Utah girl’s face. The hamburger in the 7-year-old’s meal had been cut in half, making the sandwich appear broken.

As virtually any mom can attest, the art of sandwich cutting is extremely important and varies greatly according to child preference. Some youngsters demand the crusts of their sandwiches be completely removed, others want their no-forks-required meal cut into squares, or perhaps even triangles.

Arianna Hill did not require nor want any knife to be used on her cheeseburger. The photo and corresponding story Hill’s older sister Anna Kaye MacLean posted to Facebook about the broken sandwich went viral.

MacLean and her husband had taken Arianna out to eat at Chili’s, where the little girl proceeded to order her favorite meal. Hill requested a cheeseburger with pickles, French fries and a cold glass of chocolate milk – a typical kiddo culinary delight. The problem arose when Lauren, the Chili’s waitress, returned to the table and saw the cheeseburger getting cold.

When the Chili’s server asked the little girl why she was not eating her meal, she said, “It’s broken. I need another one that’s fixed.” MacLean said it was then that she realized that seeing the sandwich cut in half made it appear broken to her baby sister.

People with autism often view order and routine as extremely important. Even a small change in the usual procedure or routine can cause a child (or adult) with autism an inordinate amount of stress and anxiety.

MacLean promptly reiterated the request for a new cheeseburger and offered to pay for the replacement. An excerpt from the older sister’s viral Facebook post about the Chili’s broken cheeseburger reads:

“‘I brought you a broken cheeseburger?! You know what, I’ll have them cook you a new one! [waitress said]’ I loved this because rather than just taking it from the table, she actually told Arianna what she was doing. While this seems insignificant, by her telling Arianna what she was doing, we avoided a meltdown.

The manager, Bradley Cottermole, then came to our table, kneeled down, and said to Arianna, ‘I heard we gave you a broken cheeseburger! I am so sorry about that! We are making you a brand new one that isn’t broken, with pickles! I’ll bring you some French fries to munch on while you’re waiting, ok?’ A couple of minutes later, Lauren arrived back at our table with cheeseburger #2.”

When the unbroken cheeseburger was delivered to the table, little Arianna gave the juicy sandwich a kiss and said, “Oh I missed you.” MacLean snapped a photo of the kiss, which she shared with the waitress and other staff. The older sister recalled being very touched by the entire Chili’s cheeseburger experience. She also noted that the act of compassion by the restaurant staff literally kept their fun outing from turning into a horrible disaster.

Chili’s Fixes ‘Broken Cheeseburger’ For Autistic Girl is a post from: The Inquisitr

In 2009, when Facebook introduced a “Reconnect” feature to prompt users to reach out to estranged friends, it spooked a number of users when Facebook suggested they reconnect with a dead friend or relative. 

The use of the Internet in personal life is old enough that the question of what should happen to a deceased person’s online presence is relevant. Facebook offers an option to turn the profile of a deceased member into a memorial. 

Last week, Google announced a service called “Inactive Account Manager” to help people plan their “digital afterlife.” Between videos uploaded on YouTube, emails and contacts on Gmail, profiles on Google+, and documents on Google Drive, Google holds an immense trove of personal and professional data for millions of people. The Inactive Account Manager allows people to decide what to do with all this data once they pass away - either by having it all deleted, or turning access over to a trusted list of contacts. 

For most people, the data of a departed friend or relative will be a means to remember them or preserve important financial or professional information. But for famous figures from Barack Obama to Taylor Swift, their data will be desired by academics, gossipy college students, and many others.

The most personal of documents belonging to historical figures have been preserved, shared, and made fodder for historical analysis. George Washington’s diaries are available online. Publishing personal correspondence of literary figures posthumously is common in literary magazines. (Want to read James Joyce’s strange, dirty love letter? Click here!)

Perhaps the ease of deleting all your data in one click means that famous figures will delete their Google data. It’s easier than destroying every letter and diary entry. But our hunch is that most will not delete their all-important data, and just as has been the case for centuries, their friends and relatives will choose to make it publicly available.

If history is any guide, this means that history students will study the 50th President of the United States by reading through his archived Google data. 

This post was written by Alex Mayyasi. Follow him on Twitter here or Google Plus.

The Voynich Manuscript, a small and strange book, has for a century attracted scholars eager to decipher its contents. All failed. Is the Voynich a hoax?… more»

Here’s another Roomba, sort of.

Everyone arrives late to parties. This is not universally true, but it is close enough that it is common practice to invite people to arrive to a party at 8pm that you actually intend to start at 9pm. 

This norm of tardiness can be ascribed to culture, as partygoers are much more punctual in Germany than in, say, Brazil. But we think game theory - the same framework behind the prisoner’s dilemma - does a much better job explaining why people persistently arrive late. Partygoers arrive late because they face a dilemma in which arriving late tends to maximize their enjoyment of the party.

An illustration of the dilemma faced by two prisoners who committed a crime together. If they remain silent while being interrogated, the case against them will be weaker, resulting in a short sentence. A prisoner could reduce his sentence by ratting out his fellow prisoner, but if they both confess, then they will both receive longer sentences. Since the prisoners cannot be sure of what the other will do, the rational choice is to confess.

Here is an example. For simplicity, let’s imagine a three person party hosted by Joe. Joe invites his two friends, Frank and George, to his house. The three are good friends, but they haven’t seen very much of each other lately and would like to spend as much time as possible together at the “party.” Joe is not the most entertaining host, however, so the party won’t be very fun until all three of them get to Joe’s house.

This is what happens based on whether George and Frank each arrive on time:

Here are the same results described with numbers representing their enjoyment of the party from 6 (least enjoyment) to 10 (most enjoyment):

The best outcome is for Frank and George to both arrive on time so that everyone spends the most possible time together enjoying the party. However, both Frank and George want to avoid the awkwardness of arriving before the other friend arrives. Given that they can’t predict what the other will do, here is what their options look like for deciding whether to arrive late or on time:

George’s options if Frank is on time. If Frank is on time, George should arrive on time as well to maximize his enjoyment of the party.

George’s options if Frank is late. If Frank is late, then George should arrive late as well.

As we can see, there is no single right decision for George to make. Depending on what Frank does, the utility maximizing decision could be coming on time or arriving late. Frank faces the same dilemma. 

So what happens? Absent any wildcards - like Frank having a history of always showing up late - our money is on both George and Frank showing up on time. Since the party only consists of 3 close friends, the level of trust and accountability between the friends is high. Arriving late would feel disrespectful to the other friends.

At a large house party, however, we would expect the exact opposite. Since the level of trust and accountability is lower among a bigger group, the partygoers will have less faith in everyone else arriving on time and feel less guilty about being late. Humans have a bias toward risk aversion, so people will tend toward arriving late to avoid the awkwardness of being the lone, on-time arrival. 

Being “fashionably late” to a party isn’t about appearing popular. It’s a utility-maximizing decision predicted by game theory.

This post was written by Alex Mayyasi. Follow him on Twitter here or Google Plus.

French photographer Thierry Cohen is concerned that city dwellers never experience the starry sky visible in truly dark conditions, so he’s done a photo series to show people what they’re missing. His technique is interesting: He takes photos of cityscapes, carefully records the time, angle, latitude and longitude of each shot, then goes to remote areas at corresponding latitudes and takes nighttime photos of the sky. He superimposes the images to show what the cities would see if all of their lights went out.

The photos are supposed to be a commentary on light pollution, but I find them surreal and haunting in a way that has nothing to do with astronomy. There’s a post-apocalyptic, “not even any humans to build campfires” quality to them that’s really rather eerie.

Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the project with more photos, and there are additional photos here.

via

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!

O novo disco do Daft Punk ainda vai demorar mais de um mês para sair (21 de maio não chega nunca), e os fãs da dupla francesa estão tão malucos pelas novas músicas que qualquer pedaço de uma canção é o suficiente para o que há de melhor na cultura de remixes entrar em ação.

Random Access Memories é o primeiro disco de estúdio do Daft Punk desde 2005 — e nós já falamos dele por aqui. Ele foi confirmado no começo do ano, mas as informações eram escassas. Elas começaram a surgir em março e em um mês e meio só conseguiram levar os fãs à loucura. Sabemos muito pouco de Random Access Memories, mas o que sabemos é o suficiente para colocar o disco como um dos mais esperados do ano – se não for o mais esperado, ao menos nesse primeiro semestre.

A primeira amostra do que está por vir foi feita no dia 2 de março. Um pequeno anúncio de 15 segundos foi feito durante os comerciais do Saturday Night Live, nos EUA. E, no mesmo dia, o fenômeno começou a acontecer: os 15 segundos de música em pouquíssimo tempo se tornaram vídeos de vários minutos com aquele pequeno pedaço da canção sendo repetida. Você pode ouvir a guitarra de Nile Rodgers por 10 minutos seguidos, por exemplo:

Thomas Bangalter e Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo não ficaram satisfeitos e quiseram continuar brincando com as emoções dos fãs – além de, claro, jogar o hype do novo disco lá pro alto. No dia 4 de abril eles começaram a soltar uma série de vídeos chamada The Collaborators. Uma entrevista por vídeo com os colaboradores do novo disco. E, no meio das entrevistas, mais alguns pedaços de música. Abaixo você pode ver o que Nile Rodgers tem a dizer – dá para ativar legendas em português:

Mas o fato mais impressionante aconteceu neste fim de semana. Um vídeo de pouco mais de um minuto com a dupla e dois dos seus colaboradores – Nile Rodgers e Pharrell Williams – passou durante o festival Coachella. Minutos depois, ele estava em vários lugares, com imagens do telão do festival. Na noite do mesmo dia, o mesmo vídeo foi exibido novamente durante os comerciais do Saturday Night Live – você pode ver aqui. Resultado? Bom, primeiro GIFS:

E se 15 segundos de música foram o suficiente para levar a internet à loucura com vários remixes, um minuto faria ainda mais estrago. E fez. Você encontra várias versões estendidas da canção do anúncio, como esta abaixo:

Já esta versão, por exemplo, poderia muito bem ser a completa. Mas não é – é apenas uma colagem de todos os trechos da música que foram liberados. Mas tudo bem, dá para ouvir o dia inteiro sem se incomodar com o fato de que não é a música final:

Tudo isso em dois dias. A música em questão se chama “Get Lucky” e será o primeiro single do disco. Mas ela já conseguiu um feito bastante impressionante: está sendo ouvida o tempo inteiro sem ninguém ter acesso a versão final. O Daft Punk sequer teve que lançar uma música para fazer com que as pessoas se empolgassem com eles. Ela já e famosa sem nem ter sido lançada. Nós só ouvimos uma parte dela, mas já amamos “Get Lucky”. E esperamos que, no dia 21 de maio, o resultado final seja ainda melhor do que o que a cultura remix conseguiu fazer nas últimas semanas.

facts-i-just-made-up:

One of the most astounding mysteries of the world is this ancient tile pattern in Greece, dated to about 1,500 B.C.

It was little more than a curiosity until 2008 when its resemblance to a QR Code was recognized. First photographed in 1871 by the British Antiquities Society, they were known as the “Chinese Box Tiles” owing to the closest thing anyone had seen to the strange pattern. Little was known about the titles except that they were installed along with other beachfront roads on the isle of Igrigoria in ancient times.

In was in 2008 that QR codes became popular enough that a traveler recognized the tiles as bearing an unmistakable resemblance to the computer code which had only been developed 3,500 years after the tiles were first laid. It was another two years before anyone with a QR capable phone traveled to the island to attempt a capture.

The mystery only deepened when the phone was able to recognize the code, which lead to the original Nyan Cat video on youtube.

fer1972:

Little Cat into the Wild by George Logan 

Because having a fish in your butt is just so full of win!

True Facts About The Sea Pig [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Redditor Royally_eft's friends dressed up as monochrome people for a 1920s theme party. The effect's very good, especially shot against a colorful snack-aisle. Here's the inspiration for their costumes.

grayscale costumes for a '20s party (imgur.com)

Cartoonist Tom Hudson wasn't looking for new work. He just wanted to brag about having been rejected by Mad. His entire exchange with the editor was published in (and likely created for) the July 1963 issue of that magazine. Read it all at the link.

Link

shubbabang:

In preschool when I was 5, the boys bathroom had to get a ceiling repair so everyone had to use the girls bathroom and when I was in there some kid named Jimmy walked in.

And that was the first time I saw a penis

Bishop Samuel Wilberforce was fond of riddles. After his death in 1873, this one was found among his literary papers:

I’m the sweetest of sounds in Orchestra heard,
Yet in Orchestra never was seen.
I’m a bird of gay plumage, yet less like a bird,
Nothing ever in Nature was seen.
Touch the earth I expire, in water I die,
In air I lose breath, yet can swim and can fly;
Darkness destroys me, and light is my death,
And I only keep going by holding my breath.
If my name can’t be guessed by a boy or a man,
By a woman or girl it certainly can.

No one knows the answer.

Sou rodrigueano na biologia. Minha obsessão atual é a vergonha do macaco. A vergonha do macaco explica mais do que o complexo de vira-lata, de alcance mais limitado.

A vergonha do macaco é a coceira moral diante da presença real ou intuída do macaco. O brasileiro esconde e nega o macaco. Não admite que ele habite suas ruas, que dance sobre seus muros, que visite suas geladeiras. É como se proclamasse em faixa, na praça das nossas vergonhas: “Todo morto é um injustiçado / Todo derrotado é um despatrocinado / Todo macaco deve ser escondido”.

Se pudesse, o brasileiro tirava Darwin do caixão. Só para dizer à Caveira de Barba que aquele parente inconveniente, o macaco que acreditou na promessa de um “passa lá em casa” enunciado logo na saída do Jardim do Éden, não é primo nenhum. “Renego minha família”: é como se assim dissesse o brasileiro no tribunal das matas.

Ora, dirão que macacos são mascotes de times de futebol, que estampam lancheiras de crianças. Não. Quando vestimos macaco queremos antecipar a sua derrota com carnaval, festejar uma micareta de morte com as roupas de nosso inimigo.

No exterior, tudo fica claro. Nada espanta e ofende mais o brasileiro do que o retrato de sua terra como uma “floresta”. É o que faz com que prefeitos se insurjam contra desenhos animados. É o que faz com que o brasileiro entre num círculo de estrangeiros como se escondesse um passado. Teme que se conjugue “selvagem” e “Brasil” numa mesma frase. Teme a agulhada de ser selvagem por vizinhança.

Quando fotografa um esquilo no Central Park, o brasileiro tenta negar o macaco, para fazer esquecer que o sagui é seu vizinho. Ora, o Rio de Janeiro é coabitado por homens e saguis. Todos sabem, mas negam.

(Situação dramática 1: brasileiro alimenta esquilo no Central Park, mas é interrompido por um estrangeiro de nacionalidade indefinida, e de português claro. “Meu amigo, até o esquilo do Central Park sabe que tu vives na roça, e que acolhes macacos em casa, e que escreves sobre cabras de grinalda.”)

A vergonha do macaco se espraia até a política. Nosso compromisso com o meio ambiente vai aonde permite a vergonha do macaco. Só se tolera e se promove o mico-leão dourado nos dias de carnaval verde, das conferências e cúpulas sempre atrasadas, porque ele é raro. Ao fim, só desejamos preservar o curupira.

O ambientalismo é flácido. Talvez porque falte a ele a defesa ética e nacionalmente constitutiva do macaco. O Brasil tem mais de cem espécies de macacos, e apenas uma espécie de homem. Somos o Planeta dos Macacos que deu errado.

Adeus à jaula: o Brasil quer deserdar Esopo, mas esta terra com nome de pau é esopiana desde sempre. Wittgenstein dizia que, se um leão falasse, não entenderíamos. Se um macaco por aqui falasse, demoraria até que decifrássemos um “enfim, seu babaca”.

A vergonha do macaco nos ensurdece para o cotidiano. Por temerem o exótico, homens de ideias construíram uma torre neoclássica sobre os restos de uma pedreira estéril e, assim, des-cheiraram os melhores perfurmes, des-pensaram as melhores ideias. Na tentativa de escondermos o papagaio que mora em nosso ombro, corremos o risco de esquecer o que é uma ave: o universal começa na aldeia como ela é. Tolstói ataca de novo, agora vestido de Carmen Miranda.

(Situação dramática 2: Brasileiro recolhido no banheiro do quarto de hotel, de cueca, chorando. “Vi um esquilo no Central Park, vi um esquilo, o Brasil é um estacionamento.”)

Que venha a guerra nuclear. As capivaras herdarão o Tietê.

 ******

Comentário de Márcio Guilherme:

“Os EUA preservaram sua natureza – há esquilos no parque”: como se os macacos que andam nos fios do Rio fossem antinaturais, mais ou menos como o sexo anal na Bíblia.

Pensei que nós devíamos estar felizes pelo Senhor nos ter concedido o domingo pra ir com a família no Jardim Zoológico dar pipoca aos macacos e senti falta do Macaco Tião no texto: no Rio, a Revolução Política começará com a posse de um macaco. Se Calígula fosse carioca, Incitatus seria macaco. Seria legal um macaco deputado circulando de toga na Cinelândia depois de bater palma e guinchar pra Cidinha Campos no plenário.

Rodrigo Levino:

É uma abordagem, você sabe, inusual da identidade nacional.

In the 14th century, an unnamed Kabbalistic scholar declared that the universe contains 301,655,722 angels.

In 1939, English astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington calculated that it contains 15,747,724, 136,275,002,577,605,653,961,181,555,468,044,717,914,527,116,709,366,231,425,076,
185,631,031,296 electrons.

“Some like to understand what they believe in,” wrote Stanislaw Lec. “Others like to believe in what they understand.”

Back in 2010 I posted a prime magic square created by a prison inmate and published anonymously in the Journal of Recreational Mathematics. The same prisoner composed the 7×7 square above, which has some remarkable properties of its own:

• Here again every cell is prime.
• The numbers in each row, column, and the two main diagonals add to the magic constant of 27627.
• That same constant, 27627, is the sum of each broken diagonal (that is, each pair of parallel diagonals that include seven numbers, for example 3881 + 827 + 9257 + 5471 + 1741 + 29 + 6421).
• If the units digit is removed from each number (changing 9341 to 934, 6367 to 636, etc.), then it remains a pandiagonal magic square, with all the properties mentioned above for the primes.

Both squares appeared in the October 1961 issue of Recreational Mathematics Magazine — editor Joseph S. Madachy noted that they had been “sent to Francis L. Miksa of Aurora, Illinois from an inmate in prison who, obviously, must remain nameless.”

It’s not clear to me why the prisoner shouldn’t get credit for this work, whatever his crime — presumably he created both squares while working alone and without tools or references, a remarkable achievement. If I learn any more I’ll post it here.