Archives for “Sociology”

the most beautiful moment at the renaissance festival. EVER.

Tweet I saw the most beautiful moment last weekend at the Ren Fest and I have to share it with you. It involves children and green giants. (stay with me for a moment…) I started going to the Texas Renaissance Festival in either 1987 or 1988 while going to Texas A&M as an undergrad. I [...]


Marco Brambilla

Tweet Kanye West POWER by Marco Brambilla (Director’s Cut) from ARTJAIL on Vimeo. Ghost by Marco Brambilla from ARTJAIL on Vimeo.


we’re not completely not termites

Tweet From the article: The first dreams we ever had were to be held. And loved. And to explore this amazing world with love in our lives. We dreamed of seeing, touching, and experiencing the world around us, with the happiness and comfort that comes from family. As adults, many of us dream of building [...]


tennis opponent wastes time and delays between serves

Tweet Excerpts from an email regarding how to handle cheaters taking too long between serves, first or second during a tennis match. Make no mistake, the delay of tennis serve by your opponent is a cheap attempt to get in your head and play mind games. And it’s against the rules.  The bottom line from [...]


those who remain determined “mouse-avores” starve

Tweet “IV. At the same time, living systems adapt themselves to changes in their environment they learn, grow, develop, evolve. When the mouse population in a region suddenly declines because of an epidemic, the predators who adapt to a new prey survive; those who remain determined “mouse-avores” starve. Life events affect us and change us, [...]


In nomine Patri

Tweet Connor: Now you will receive us. Murphy: We do not ask for your poor, or your hungry. Connor: We do not want your tired and sick. Murphy: It is your corrupt we claim. Connor: It is your evil that will be sought by us. Murphy: With every breath we shall hunt them down. Connor: [...]


the guilt of a confessed pre-prayer

Tweet Guilt. Guilt is a major factor for me. It is something we Catholics specialize in. Sin is human. You must confess your sins. This is ingrained in you. You step out of the confessional and you glance at a young woman in your seventh grade class and her breasts are pressing up against her [...]


an oversupply of women = more sexually permissive culture

Tweet Sex is cheap. And in a female dominated society, as the US is quickly becoming, men have the upper hand in bed. From the article “Sex is Cheap” on Slate: …a significant number of young men are faring rather badly in life, and are thus skewing the dating pool. It’s not that the overall [...]


the way that you have sex

Tweet There is an entire generation growing up that believes what you see in hard core pornography is the way that you have sex. More: http://makelovenotporn.com/ via brain pickings. I have talked about this before.


eligible-bachelor paradox

Tweet The Eligible-Bachelor Paradox explained on Slate. Game theory is a bitch folks. This is how you come to the Eligible-Bachelor Paradox, which is no longer so paradoxical. The pool of appealing men shrinks as many are married off and taken out of the game, leaving a disproportionate number of men who are notably imperfect [...]


as such informal appearances may be thought to discredit

Tweet “… example of backstage difficulties may be cited from the contingencies of being an exalted person. Persons may become so sacred that the only fitting appearance they can make is in the center of a retinue and ceremony; it may be thought improper for them to appear before others in any other context, as [...]


ebert’s this is a dog

Tweet We look at others and think, One of / not one of us. Then we make a value judgment depending on who “us” is. Some people may look with distaste at a woman with body piercings, ripped jeans, a studded belt, a streak of chartreuse in their hair and a good-sized tattoo on their [...]


(shows Men’s Bathroom Door Sign)

Tweet …personally I think people with the power to detonate our economy and ravage our ecology would do better having a picture of Icarus hanging from the wall….I want them thinking about the possibility of failure all the time. We have greed, we’ve got over-confidence/hubris but since we’re here at TED Women, let’s consider one [...]


group cohesion

Tweet Despite the limitation on oxytocin’s social reach, its effect seems to be achieved more through inducing feelings of loyalty to the in-group than by fomenting hatred of the out-group. The Dutch researchers found some evidence that it enhances negative feelings, but this was not conclusive. “Oxytocin creates intergroup bias primarily because it motivates in-group [...]


orange show kaleidoscope gala 2010

Tweet View the full gala photo gallery on the orange show site.


Tweet From danah boyd – another very interesting observation on teen behavior in social media. Mikalah uses Facebook but when she goes to log out, she deactivates her Facebook account. She knows that this doesn’t delete the account – that’s the point. She knows that when she logs back in, she’ll be able to reactivate [...]


deception

Tweet Researchers found that people assigned to be “buyers” respond to the situation in one of three ways: there’s the incrementalist, who consistently applies the same percentage to the known value – such as 1/2 or 1/3 – and is honest with price suggestions. There are the conservatives, whose suggestions don’t say much about the [...]


real artists ship

Tweet “REAL ARTISTS SHIP.” – Steve Jobs (source)


fantasy valuations – if you can’t sell at a profit…

Tweet You can’t sell at a profit and make it up in volume. This is just business-common-sense. And this matters because as employees of realistic corporations that are required by reality to sustain themselves, we get frustrated keeping up with the Kardashians. Even the Joneses aren’t keeping up with the Joneses. It’s a scam dude. [...]


don’t be so judgmental

Tweet “I always laugh when somebody says, “don’t be so judgmental.” Being judgmental is just what we do. Not being judgmental really would be like death. Normative behavior is normal. That original self-conscious, slightly despairing glance in the mirror (together with, “Is this it?” or “Is that all there is?”) is a great enabler because [...]


Tweet When you encounter a millennial job applicant who is right out of school looking for the “perfect job”, as an older person, you think thoughts like “Hey kid, I was just served a $3 coffee by a 50 year old working a split shift of 5AM to 9AM and then 3PM to 7PM at [...]


Notes on Social Objects

Tweet If you haven’t read the story of the Microsoft Blue Monster, and Hugh’s thoughts on social objects, I highly recommend it. The full blue monster story is here on Hugh’s blog. I was just rereading it for an upcoming talk that discusses Social Objects. And of course I would be remiss if I did [...]


no way to store culture except in the medium it exists

Tweet A few notes from reading Edward T Hall‘s Beyond Culture: Culture information and techniques are passed from members of one generation to the next. The next generation takes this accumulation, adds its own discoveries and refinements, and passes the total on to the next. It seems to me however that that transference of cultural [...]


Tweet Some stats from the book Who Really Cares by Arthur C. Brooks: Religion is the overwhelmingly dominant factor in predicting generosity —religious liberals and religious conservatives are identical. “Religious” is defined by Brooks as individuals who attend worship service at least once a week (30% of the population) and; “Secular” is defined by Brooks [...]


irrational humans

Tweet “We spend money we don’t have on things we don’t need to create impressions that won’t last on people we don’t care about.” (more)