Movie Time

Apparently DMX has a heart too.

Here's how Gravity was made.

Do you remember the sorority letter that made the internet rounds a few months ago?  No?  Well, this is a dramatic reading of it.  (Maybe don't play this one with the sound up and random children or old people listening.  There is some swearing.  Earmuffs!)

Yay the English language!

What a terrible idea...

What a reasonable and sadly obvious idea...

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Empathy

In honor of Tony Gonzalez's imminent retirement, here's a career retrospective on him.

It's an interesting story on the origin of the word "redskin," but one possible counter-argument is that it's like the n-word in that black people can use it but nobody else can.

This is in my neighborhood.

Here's a cartoon about empathy.

This might surprise you, but I found myself agreeing with this take in response to the Duck Dynasty (and other) kerfuffles.  (You posted the companion article from The Atlantic that I also agreed with.)

ObamaCare has gone from not working to really not working.

This was nice.  So was this.

Responses:

1. Did you notice the dim sum prices?  I imagine it's worth it.

4. Thousands of Flipper fans just unsubscribed from the Wall Street Journal in a huff.

Assorted Responses to Responses:

I think the benefit from lower-tier law schools is that they produce essentially blue-collar lawyers (e.g. DUI lawyers, divorce lawyers, etc.).  The problem is that they charge Harvard prices, but that's in part because 1) attendees get a benefit, however intangible, i.e. they can call themselves lawyers, and 2) attendees can get artificially cheap government loans to attend without any semblance of underwriting.  Remove the cheap loans and these schools will either dramatically lower their prices or go out of business.

On women and beauty, I think the valuation problem is important.  But people with healthy self-esteem don't typically suffer as a result of it.  They might experience the problem, but they're also able to work through it better.  Society right now is going through this phase where nobody can be offended or hurt or whatever, and it's clouding the issue.  There are women and girls who are hurting themselves because of unhealthily low self-esteem related to body image issues.  This is a mental health issue.  There are also people who are annoyed because they see a mom posing with a six-pack eight months after giving birth.  I don't know if their feeling of annoyance is a societal problem.

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there is no theme here

see this is what i thought ping pong dim sum was supposed to be like

"You know it’s going to be a good party if the host is deep-frying something when you arrive.”

the funny thing is #8. there really is an app for everything.

i enjoy this kind of research made just to smackdown the intelligence of certain animals. it's like, oh yeah, and whales aren't that bright either!

this is perhaps not newsworthy to us but the fact that it's posted on theAtlantic's site makes it so

responses to children and the future
1. i do think it makes sense sometimes not to tell children what they're supposed to be learning - like when they gave those kids the toy and told them one attribute v. none. i would assume that was the only attribute as well.

responses to now featuring social commentary

1. and 4. I had heard about both the metro and chipotle pizza stories before you posted and thought about posting both to you. i couldn't get the chipotle pizza story i found to open though and i had only read the metro story in the paper or on the radio or something. in any case, more evidence that that indian chipotle guy should have totally won america's next top great best restaurant. 

2. but isn't this the way to run for president - to say - oh i'm not sacrificing my service as a congressman in a quest for the presidency and you're all, you're such a swell guy, and then you end up with obama?

3. i feel that yes, it's paternalistic to shut down the lower-tier law schools but do we/does anyone really get any benefit from them?

5. i'm not sure i can talk about the redskins until the regular season is over. just too painful.

i do think the anti-obesity and anti-idealized woman campaigns will be in tension - that's a good point on your part. but maybe you're fine just the way you are (asterik) so long as your bmi is ok? women's self esteem IS so low. i wonder why that is. i mean there are idealized pictures of men as well and that doesn't seem to have such a strong effect on them. some would say it's because women are told that they have to be beautiful to be valued but is that the whole reason? 

responses to missing in action
1. that gay rights article wasn't quite as agreeable as i thought it would be. like i don't agree with not comparing the pope to phil robertson. obviously they occupy different positions, but it's the reaction to them that is relevant. 

2. haven't been shopping at target but now i miss out on the 3 class action lawsuits being filed against them.

3. continually impressed that of all the celebrities that could have been political figures, dennis rodman somehow made it to the n korea list.

4. i'm going to miss the double down.

Missing in Action

Once again, a public figure says something negative about homosexuality, and once again people react by trying to silence him.  But happily, some gay rights supporters realize how bigoted this is.

I hope you haven't been shopping at Target.

Any document that begins "Dear Mr. Rodman" that is addressed to Dennis Rodman is already off to a bad start.  That said, I hope that someone who actually matters and who can help will take a look.

I hope you got your fill of the Double Down because it's gone.

Responses to "Whatever Happened to Kel?":

2. It's good that they're finding family-based solutions.

3. This was my childhood, especially when I was living with my dad.

4. When all else fails, you can buy anything on Amazon.  That said, Whole Foods might have them if you can't spare another moment...

6. Like every generation, the millennials have created their (our?) identity in response to their (our?) parents.  There's good and bad with that.

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Now Featuring Social Commentary

By 2040, there could be a lot more Metro stations.

In my book, Paul Ryan is good people.  Ted Cruz is still on my naughty list.

Is there some way to exchange this "cultural cachet" for money?  That said, I agree with the second paragraph.

The Chipotle model is spreading to the world of pizza.

On RG3's benching.

Responses to "The Long Awaited Return":

1. I get the cognitive dissonance thing, but I agree that it does not apply to the Redskins situation.  It is fairly pervasive, though.  One reason that I have so many liberal friends is to try to combat it.

3. It probably was from me - in any case, I've been following this for a few years.  A little while ago, there was a proposal to take facemasks off of helmets in order to discourage football players from leading with their heads.  To be sure, it would probably also lead to more bloody noses and lips, but I'd rather have a broken nose than memory loss, brain degeneration, mental problems, and early death stemming from multiple concussions.

5. No.  Ayn Rand posed a hyothetical about art that might be relevant:  If you paint a picture of a beautiful woman and represent her as flawless, you're celebrating beauty; but if you paint that same picture and feature some defect, however ordinary, then you are in effect highlighting that defect in a negative way, even if a real woman with that same defect might be viewed as beautiful.  I view magazine covers as art in this sense - the women on the cover are just idealized versions of people, whether the idealization comes from makeup, false hair, expensive clothing, or digital manipulation.

If I had a daughter, I would tell her to aspire to be better every day (whether it's doing better in school, mastering a skill, or getting in better shape), but it would be in the context of having good self-esteem, i.e. her knowing that she has innate worth as a person.  The problem isn't that Photoshopping these actresses is ruining girls' self-esteem or body image.  The problem is that girls' self-esteem and body image are in such a bad place already, and these Photoshopped actresses punctutate the problem.

After all, let's take the issue to its logical conclusion.  Presumably the initial (non-Photoshopped) picture of Jennifer Lawrence shows an attractive woman.  But to a girl with body image or self-esteem problems, doesn't the initial (non-Photoshopped) picture generate the same problem?  Lawrence is still more attractive than the average woman, and her "realistic" image (i.e. her actual image pre-Photoshop) is still unrealistic for many girls.  The solution for the anti-Photoshop crowd doesn't seem to be getting rid of Photoshop, but rather getting rid of models or aspirational images of women in general.  Just look at the Dove ads or the "regular women" campaign.

As a final note, at some point, I do think that the anti-idealized woman campaign and the anti-obesity campaign are going to be in tension.  Maybe they're doing it with kid gloves still, but the latter ("you're not fine just the way you are") is saying the opposite of the former ("you're fine just the way you are") with respect to overweight people.

B

whatever happened to kel?

lifehacker ......well hacks our lives

interesting and hopeful

what is up with the heartwarming stories today?

i'm going to keep these cures in mind. where do i buy caraway seeds?

stuff to watch at home if my wifi works

not sure i agree with everything but interesting nonetheless

i think we're in the hotbed for greed

reporting the big stories: whatever happened to kel?

the long awaited return

This cognitive dissonance thing came up today - someone saying that Redskins fans used it to negate knowing that the team name was offensive. Actually we know some people are offended, we just don't care. it's not a mental quirk.

i've heard about this goldieblox company and it seems pretty dumb to me, this coming from me, who buys everything i possibly can in pink. this doesn't make them seem much better.

i heard this idea somewhere - maybe from you. super-safe football helmets are ironically causing concussions.

good news for the rock. though i'm not sure he's the king if robert downey jr is in second place just from starring in one l'il movie.

this was making the rounds though this cover came out last year. do you think that actresses - particularly actresses who speak out about improving girls' body image - are being hypocritical if they don't do something to stop the ridiculously photoshopped images of them being put out in magazines? p.s. i hate jennifer lawrence but you knew that.

preliminary responses
2. i'm pretty sure we watched sesame street as kids though i don't know if we understood the pop culture references or if there were any. to be sure, my sister watches a fair amount of sesame street now so she should know more about pop culture than she claims to.

3. that top chef ordering service seems skeezy even as the article took great pains to say how top chef was better than the other bravo-tv schlock. but i would rent mike isabella. =D

4. why would you think i care about that jeremy lin character, eh?

5. they won't let you bring in your purse but you can bring a taser?

Something about Children and the Future

This is the Wired article I mentioned.  There's a link to the Ted Talk in the article.

Did your siblings watch Sesame Street growing up?  Maybe they should now.

You can invite your favorite a random Top Chef personality into your home.

Jeremy Lin is doing well on his new team.  Not that you'd care or anything...  (In a related story, the current Knicks point guard is doing terribly.  Maybe that wasn't the best move.)

They're adding insult to injury at FedEx Field.

Here are some great wildlife photos.

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