What the F---: Why We Curse

An excellent essay by Steven Pinker in The New Republic.

The response is not only emotional but involuntary. It's not just that we don't have earlids to shut out unwanted sounds. Once a word is seen or heard, we are incapable of treating it as a squiggle or noise; we reflexively look it up in memory and respond to its meaning, including its connotation. The classic demonstration is the Stroop effect, found in every introductory psychology textbook and the topic of more than four thousand scientific papers. People are asked to look through a list of letter strings and to say aloud the color of the ink in which each one is printed. Try it with this list, saying "red," "blue," or "green" for each item in turn from left to right:

red blue green blue green red

Easy. But this is much, much, harder:

red blue green blue green red

[Via Daring Fireball].

Tanks for the memories

Need a fun corporate event and tired of picnics and similar outings. Take the tank option instead. No, I'm not kidding, a company in the UK offers tank rentals for fun events. The link is currently reporting an error (www.tanklimo.com), but there's a wonderful picture on the Neatorama blog (copy below). A couple more pictures can be found on Make:.



UPDATE: BoingBoingTV features the tanklimo in its latest episode. I wonder if it'd be wise to take one as an alternative to a taxi to the airport, or would it look bad?

Old Onion "News" - Seven Trampled In Annual Running Of The Congressmen

I came across this old Onion headline, and couldn't keep from laughing out loud. I remember the article clearly, and am glad to see it can still make me smile after more than ten years (wow, it's been that long?).

Seven Trampled In Annual 'Running Of The Congressmen'

[The Onion]

Weird Al Wednesday ... and it's Ground Zero

Fair warning, this can be a pretty disturbing video for some people ... so if you're particularly fragile on the topic of nukes, don't watch it. I'm in the mood to watch this video again, and as it's wednesday I'm sharing the experience with anyone fond of Al. So click below to watch "Christmas at Ground Zero."



[via Revver]

Cory Doctorow's Future of Air Travel

From Boing Boing comes Cory Doctorow's vision of the future of travel. Click on through for the full quote.

I've said it before, but it bears repeating: the future of high-end air-travel is Ninja Air. The night before your flight, a highly trained ninja sneaks into your bedroom, blowdarts you, packs your suitcase, shrinkwraps you and sticks a routing tag on you. You are shipped, unconscious and stacked like cordwood, to your destination. Another ninja carries you (and your bags) off the plane and checks you into your hotel.

[Via Boing Boing].

"Punched" a great SNL short

Nothing more worthy of comic ridicule than what strikes me (no pun intended) as a very stupid fad. And this is a truly brilliant send-up. Though I felt bad for the Foo Fighters, and am pleased to hear of Jon Bon Jovi's recovery :)



Update: It appears the video has been removed from YouTube, a second copy can be found here.

[via YouTube]

Gas Tank Iconography - The Hidden (and useful) Truth

So it turns out the gas icon in that rental car is stealthily conveying the crucial location of your gas tank opening.

[via Bits & Piece]

Update on the X-Wing Rocket ... video of disintegration now available.

A quick update on the X-Wing rocket story. Video is now available.



[via Slashdot]