Unhappy Hipsters

Unhappy Hipsters is a website devoted to picturesque shots of purported lonely hipsters. The photos seem to be ripped out of various architectural digests, but the captions is what makes them brilliant. You can send tips in to unhappyhipsters@gmail.com.

Enjoy!
It was unclear how her life had become so riddled with obvious metaphors.
(Photo: Paco Perez; Dwell, July/August 2004)

Everyone always leaves.
(Dwell, April 2009)

The octopus was full of judgment.
(Photo: Mark Compton; Dwell, October 2009)

(From TJ )

They Can't Turn the Lights Off

They Can't Turn the Lights Off is "HitRECord's animated short about the Prop 8 trial, transparency, media, freedom and the future". And a "freaky computer spirit" and people who look like that guy from Pokemon. But the message is serious: transparency IS up to you and me and everyone deserves equal rights..

(From ) Youtube

What pregnant women won't tell you. Ever.

I came across a great article from Skepchick on the less glamorous details of pregnancy that may not make it past the editor's desk for What to Expect When You're Expecting. The best part of this article is that it's just one of the many great reads at Skepchick.

So, what is Skepchick?

From their site: "Skepchick is a group of women (and one deserving guy) who write about science, skepticism, and pseudoscience. With intelligence, curiosity, and occasional snark, the group tackles diverse topics from astronomy to astrology, psychics to psychology." Below is an excerpt from the article.

"[W]hile the human-baking process has been going on for like at least 6000 years or so, it’s hardly a process that’s been perfected. And shockingly, a good portion of the process is not discussed. Really. If you think that being pregnant is anything like what you’ve seen in the movies or heard from your friends or co-workers, you might be surprised to hear that normal uncomplicated pregnancies can suck.

So I made a list of things no one tells you about pregnancy until you’re already sucked in. Not everyone experiences all of these. Some women experience none of these. Some women experience all of these and more. And these do not include any of the things no one tells you about complications, miscarriages, infertility or unwanted pregnancy. So this list is only for the lucky ones.

You’re pregnant with a baby you want and you and your husband planned for! Congrats! You must be thrilled! Everyone else is! Don’t you love being pregnant? Everyone else does! It’s magical! It’s wonderful!

Except… you’re not. Don’t try to talk about it with anyone. It’s like explaining mustard to a frog. Women who are already parents will explain to you that you’re just dealing with some stress, and that everything will be fine. Everyone who is not a mother will just be confused or think you’re joking."

(From Skepchick via reddit)

Illustrated Celebrity Tweets

Celebrities are ridiculous, and celebrities on twitter even more so. Tweetmuseum offers graphic depictions of all the wacky things celebrities have tweeted. My favo(u)rite is Lidsay Lohan's comments of coining the phrase "self out" and the picture of Anderson Cooper sexual healing himself with strange forest animals.
(From ) Steven Neptune

What happens if you fall into a Black Hole?

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson at The Richmond Forum - What happens if you fall into a Black Hole?
is a video of a talk given by astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson. In it, he describes, based on known science of how Black Holes operate and how the human body responds to such conditions, what would happen to your body if you fell into a Black Hole.

For a few extra hours of science fun... check our Dr. Tyson's website. Besure to check out the video of Dr. Tyson on The Colbert Report- funny stuff! Or his appearance on The Daily Show.

I wish someone had told me how fun science can be back when I was required to learn it in exchange for grades that determined my future...

"Science is, in fact, interesting. It's just never been presented that way." - Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson


(From my friend, Daniel )

Poof! You're Now Using a Touchscreen!

Okay, so maybe not right this moment, but soon, everyone with a computer monitor can have a touchscreen!

Displax is a Portugese-based company that has created a wonderful, paper-thin polymer film which contains a grid of nanowires which has the capacity to interact with up to 16 fingers, sense air movement over the film, and "can be applied on any non-conductive flat or curved surface including glass, plastic and wood with a thickness under 15 mm. It works in daylight or at night, indoors or outdoors, and isn’t affected by light conditions."

Apparently, the film is applied to the backside of the screen which protects it from all our grimy hands. Looks like we're one step closer to having interactive computers like those from Minority Report. Pretty groovy!

(From Gizmodo)

Man Eggs

ManEggs is a webcomic by tom@tombland.net.

It's not very funny. Except the enclosed one. That one is funny. There you go.

(From Metafilter)

First Person Tetris

First Person Tetris is a take on Tetris that I've never seen before!

When the game starts up, you see what appears to be Tetris playing on a TV- with a VCR on top and everything. When you flip the pieces... the TV and entire setting flip!

Try it out... it'll blow your mind!


(From Neatorama)

Letter Me Later

Letter Me Later is a website that lets you send out emails at a specific time in the future. According to their self-description, the site "allows you to send emails to anyone you wish, with the ability to have them sent at any future date and time you choose. "

The basic service is free, and of course there is an upgraded service available for a fee.

Overall very useful for Gmail, which currently does not have the capability to natively schedule emails in advance--a feature necessary for large scale social organizing and general productivity. Sure, you can use Thunderbird, but your computer has to be on for the email to be sent at the future date.

This site is a decent but not perfect fix (are you hearing me, Google Gmail team?! Make my dreams come true!). (From my frustration with not being able to preschedule gmails)

Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky Discuss Lord of the Rings

Below is a sample from McSweeney's website which contains unused commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky from The Fellowship of the Ring. It's beautiful dialogue on a different take on the conflict in the book/movie series.

Chomsky: One of the problems with the perspective offered by the Man-Elf coalition is that you have to try so hard to get at the truth of the conflict, at what is really going on; it's so obscured by their propaganda and relentless militarism. I mean, here we have swords being distributed to the Hobbits by Strider so they can protect themselves against these "evil creatures." Now, in this case, it's probably warranted, though the "evil creatures" are looking for the ring in their own individual self-interest. They're behaving in a purely rational way.

Zinn: The Nazgul have been ordered to get the ring. So, that's what they're doing.

Chomsky: There are conflicts in rationality as well. Sometimes valid rationality is forced into conflict because of the structures of culture. But working through those cultural differences is where the peace lies. It doesn't lie in destroying some magical ring. This takes me back to the media's involvement in all this, and the way the media is being controlled by Gandalf, such as when he covers Saruman's palantir in Orthanc. This is the stone that allows one to see, and thus communicate with, different cultures.

Zinn: Right. "What does the eye command, my lord?" This is what the Orcs ask Saruman. In other words, what does the palantir say? Clearly the Orcs know a lot more about the people of Rohan and Gondor than the people of Rohan and Gondor have ever cared to know about them. They're curious beings.

(From McSweeney's Internet Tendency)