Cary

SCIENCE EXPLAINS WHY MEN LIKE WOMEN WITH CURVY BOOTIES

The Huffington Post, March 5, 2015

"Over the course of human history, women faced the adaptive problem of a forwarded-shifted center of mass during pregnancy. Women with a greater degree of lumbar curvature … were able to redistribute this center of mass to reduce the strain of pregnancy. Thus, we hypothesized that men should have a psychological adaptation to prefer these women as mating partners."

In short, male preference for this specific anatomical form likely evolved because it enabled women to sustain multiple pregnancies without injury and to forage productively during pregnancy.

The Idle Hour is a whiskey-barrel shaped bar in North Hollywood that recalls the glory days of novelty roadside architecture.

By the dawning of World War II in Los Angeles, quirky commercial architecture was in full swing, particularly "programmatic" or "mimetic" design, which often meant a building's facade actually resembled what it was selling. The style was ostensibly meant to catch the eyes of passing motorists cruising amongst LA's ever-more-crowded roadside landscape.

Universal Studios film technician Michael D. Connolly originally commissioned the Idle Hour Cafe in 1941 as a taproom in the form of a giant whiskey barrel, which was then built by engineer George F. Fordyk. It operated through the 1960s, then became the La Cana Flamenco dinner theater. With the changing owners and declining quality of the space the building seemed destined to fall into roadside ruin like so many other erstwhile edifices. However in 2010, it was designated as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #977.

Thankfully, Idle Hour has been lovingly revamped and revived by the vintage-inspired bar-impresarios of 1933 Group. Now, the cedar whiskey barrel design is as good as new. Original stained glass on the ceilings and doors are still in place, with reclaimed ceiling planks on the floors and photos of other programmatic buildings on the walls. There's a fire pit on the patio, along with a reproduction of another novelty gem in the form of a pipe-smoking canine that pays that homage to the Bulldog Cafe, itself in operation from 1928 until the mid-1960s. Today, it serves as Idle Hour's private event space.

Still, it's the whiskey barrels that will make you hit the brakes.

Photographer Thomas Peter has captured gorgeous images of Aoshima, Miyazaki, the southern Japanese island that plays host to over 120 feral cats who outnumber the resident humans at a ratio of 6 to 1.

Originally introduced to the mile-long island of Aoshima to deal with mice that plagued fishermen’s boats, the cats stayed on – and multiplied. More than 120 cats swarm the island with only a handful of humans for company, mostly pensioners who didn’t join the waves of migrants seeking work in the cities after World War Two. Aoshima, a 30-minute ferry ride off the coast of Ehime prefecture, had been home to 900 people in 1945. The only sign of human activity now is the boatload of day-trippers from the mainland, visiting what is locally known as Cat Island.

photos by Thomas Peter

via The Atlantic

“A bit of advice Given to a young Native American at the time of his initiation: 

As you go the way of life, 

You will see a great chasm. Jump. 

It is not as wide as you think.” 

Joseph Campbell

Do you remember Greg Klassen's River Collection of tables? To refresh your memory, the Pacific-Northwest-based craftsman used two slabs with live edges to make one tabletop—but he flipped the live edges over to the inside. By precisely cutting a piece of glass to match the edges, the resultant table looks like a natural river:

A paradoxically similar-but-totally-different table is London-based designer Christopher Duffy's Abyss Table. This one also uses glass and wood:

As you can see, Duffy's gone with plywood (CNC-cut, we imagine) rather than Klassen's natural wood, and references the ocean rather than a river.

It's fascinating how each additional layer of glass filters the light in the same way that ocean water does, creating visually murky depths.

Duffy and his team reportedly spent a year getting the design right. And as you can guess, it's not for mass production: The handmade table's run is limited to just 25 units.

In its fourth year, Spring/Break Art Show is temporarily transforming the disused offices of Moynihan Station into an art fair based on the theme of “transaction.” With more than 80 curators and over 100 artists, it’s more a series of microshows than the other fairs opening this Armory Week, ranging from solo installations to eclectic group exhibits.

This is Spring/Break Art Show’s first year out of the Old School on Mott Street in Nolita, which is for planned conversion, of course, into condos. Moynihan Station is also in the midst of its own conversion, but the old office spaces still have their glass-windowed doors, wood-paneled walls, and ripped up carpets. Spring/Break Art Show officially opened on two floors of those offices today after yesterday’s previews, although there’s been a bit of early internet attention for Dustin Yellin’s paintings made with the shredded remains of $10,000. Visitors can now contribute to said destruction and future art in a chaotic space created by the Bazaar Teens who are heading the monetary mutilation. While money is the most obvious link to the theme of “transaction,” including roses of currency and barbed wire by Margaret Bowland and a broom of dollar bills by Mark Wagner, there is also some work centered on the exchange symbolized by Moynihan Station itself. The James Farley Post Office has operated in the building since 1914, and work by some artists, like Riitta Ikonen’s assembly of mailed objects (ping pong paddle, pieces of shelving … ), recalls this century of use.

The art is all over the spectrum. A pounding light and sound installation by Visualpilots, an immersive cloud projection piece by Christine Sciulli, and Fall On Your Sword’s uncanny “Greed Is Good” video playing on an orb encircled by a carousel of empty bottles are all engaging new media works. A large-scale collage piece by Adam Parker Smith, astronomy-inspired metalwork by Steven Pestana, a kinetic pile of painted treadmills by Brent Birnbaum, and futuristic totems of stone and feathers by Christian Berman are also all standouts. On the other hand, the inclusion of Brian Whiteley’s attention mongering clown performance piece, which somehow got the media to pick up on his lurking in a Brooklyn cemetery last year, has a room full of clowns that feels more like spectacle.

Below are photographs of some highlights from this year’s Spring/Break Art Show, which continues through this Sunday.

Spring/Break Art Show continues at Moynihan Station (West 31st Street and Eight Avenue, Midtown West, Manhattan) through March 8. 

by Anna Fitzpatrick

Fetus soap"Each soap is created one at a time using a fetus mold made by yours truly. Casting mimics gestation and birthing with its long production process and patience in curing."

Poo soap"COLOR – brown
SCENT – vanilla bean
LEAVE A NOTE IF YOU LIKE OTHER SCENT OR COLOR"

Mold soap "Leave it in the soap dish for some fun. Your guests will either think you’ve lost your mind, or are a really bad house keeper…LOL"

Razor blade soap"Over time, the razor blade may rust inside the soap, as glycerin soap has hydrophilic (water-loving) properties."

Pickle soap"So you've been longing for a pickle soap, but haven't been able to find it. Well, today is your lucky day!"

Grenade soap"Throw one of these in the shower with your loved one and they'll "blow up" with excitement!"

More poo soap"The soap will be wrapped in plastic film to ensure freshness."

Reindeer poo soap"This is definitely a gift for someone who has everything, or at least they thought they did!!!
I bet they don't have this!"

Baby hands soap"Some may call them creepy, others cute, but whatever the case, these baby arms soaps will embrace you with their soapy clean lovin'."

Baby head soap"Cleaner than a baby's butt!"

The "Rae" Soap"Each batch of soap is custom-made to order so there may be slight differences in color and texture, or scent."

10 Comments

Egg Queen

game stats [x]

What is the average size of a human penis?

The enduring question now has a scientific answer: 13.12 centimetres (5.16 inches) in length when erect, and 11.66cm (4.6 inches) around, according to an analysis of more than 15,000 penises around the world.

In a flaccid state, it found, the penis of the average man is 9.16cm (3.6 inches) in length and has a girth of 9.31cm (3.7 inches).

I shall sleep easier tonight, knowing that knowledge has been acquired.

This also has a practical purpose. Many men will realize that their dimensions sound much more impressive in centimeters, which may finally motivate Americans to use the metric system.

What a map of the United States would look like if an Amendment were passed mandating that any state containing more than 5% of the population had to divide and that any state containing less than 1.5% of the population had to be absorbed by it’s lowest-population neighboring state.

by BeingDS

Dr. Seuss

Our bodies tell us much about who we are, and ain’t nothing more integral to a man than his family jewels. What may surprise you is that a man’s testicles also say a lot about women. You see, a tool is made to do something but is designed as it is because of the environment it operates in. Wheels tell us not only about cars but also about roads. In this same vein (no pun intended) testicles tell us as much about women as they do about men. I write a lot about human nature. Testicles paint a vivid, concise picture of our nature. We know what they’re for: producing sperm. Big deal. But take a closer look. Disgusting, I know. But what about testicles […]

The post What Your Testicles Say About You appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”

- Arthur Schopenhauer

Every morning, 8-year-old Gabi Mann and her mother fill their backyard birdbath with fresh water and cover bird-feeder platforms with peanuts, and then toss handfuls of dog food into the grass. Crows gather as they work, calling loudly to them, and then quickly clear nuts from the feeders. The birds...

A video released on Thursday by ISIS shows members of the terrorist organization destroying ancient Assyrian artifacts at Iraq’s Mosul Museum and the nearby Nineveh archaeological site. The disturbing footage shows men toppling statues, smashing them with sledgehammers, and breaking them apart with drills and jackhammers.

“The prophet Muhammad commanded us to shatter and destroy these statues,” a spokesman for ISIS says at the beginning of the video, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute. “This is what his companions did later on when they conquered lands. Since Allah commanded us to shatter and destroy these statues, idols, and remains, it is easy for us to obey and we do not care [what people think], even if this costs billions of dollars.”

The video begins inside the Mosul Museum, which ISIS has occupied since last summer, when it first threatened to destroy the collection. Considered the country’s second most important museum, after the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the institution houses many artifacts dating back to the city’s heyday as the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The museum, which like many of Iraq’s institutions was looted after the US invasion in 2003, was on the verge of reopening following an extensive renovation when ISIS took control of Mosul in June 2014.

The latter portion of the video shows the destruction of sculptures at the Nineveh archaeological site directly across the Tigris river from Mosul. While many of the large-winged figures and bas-reliefs that used to adorn the ancient site have made their way into the collections of the West’s most prestigious museums — including the Metropolitan Museum, the British Museum, and the Louvre — others remained at the site, whose ancient gates have also been preserved. The ISIS video shows men using drills and sledgehammers to destroy at least three tall statues of winged and bearded figures, some of which date back to the 7th century BCE. The large sculptures adorned the gates of the ancient city.

According to an ISIS spokesperson at the beginning of the video, the artworks were “the idols of peoples of previous centuries, which were worshiped instead of Allah.” The group has been known to smuggle antiquities out of Iraq and Syria and sell them to fund its operations, but the decision to destroy rather than export the invaluable Mosul artifacts is part of ISIS’s mission to decimate shrines, buildings, and artworks that it views as heretical to its theology.

In a statement this afternoon, Thomas P. Campbell, the director of the Metropolitan Museum, expressed sadness and anger over ISIS’s actions:

Speaking with great sadness on behalf of the Metropolitan, a museum whose collection proudly protects and displays the arts of ancient and Islamic Mesopotamia, we strongly condemn this act of catastrophic destruction to one of the most important museums in the Middle East. The Mosul Museum’s collection covers the entire range of civilization in the region, with outstanding sculptures from royal cities such as Nimrud, Nineveh, and Hatra in northern Iraq. This mindless attack on great art, on history, and on human understanding constitutes a tragic assault not only on the Mosul Museum, but on our universal commitment to use art to unite people and promote human understanding. Such wanton brutality must stop, before all vestiges of the ancient world are obliterated.

Update, 7:11pm ET: Archaeologists told the UK’s Channel 4 that many if not all of the sculptures shown being smashed at the Mosul Museum are in fact replicas of the originals, most of which were moved to the Iraq Museum in Baghdad in anticipation of a situation such as this one.