Here’s a neurobiologist’s tale of trying to keep professional distance w/ his monkey study subject, Santiago.
He gets into how he taught Santiago to play a video game and eventually found himself in a battle of wills.
(via Radio Lab)
I’ve never read Lolita and probably never will.
And there’s even a chance I might even claim to have read it to impress my friends in spite of having not read it.
But I still know what it’s about.
Woolworths apparently didn’t know but marketed the ‘Lolita’ bed (via Collateral Damage):
A parenting website said it was in “unbelievably bad taste” to give the bed the same name as a novel about a sexually precocious young girl.Woolworths said the £395 Lolita Midsleeper Combi was withdrawn when the matter was brought to its attention.
…
The story of a stepfather’s sexual obsession with a 12-year-old girl has been adapted for film twice: first by Stanley Kubrick in 1962 and later in 1997 when Jeremy Irons played the lead part of Humbert Humbert.
Catherine Hanly, editor of parenting website raisingkids.co.uk, was among the parents to complain about the furniture advertised on the Woolworths website.
She said a Woolworths press officer had told her staff running the website “had no idea” of the word’s connotations.
(via BotJunkie)
This thing is around 5 ft tall, 500 lbs, and was built to work alongside humans in manufacturing settings on the following stuff:
-Assembly in the manufacturing industry (bolt tightening, parts assembly/insertion and transportation)
-Transportation in physical distribution processes (interprocess/in-process transportation of various members, arrangement before process)
It appears to likey the culture:
I am pretty sure I had a birthday at Chuck E. Cheese when I was like 5 and had a really good time.
I do remember one friend who bit Chuck E. Cheese in the tail cause he thought Chuck was attacking his mother.
I don’t remember seeing any grownups throw down.
But maybe I wasn’t watching close enough (via Adfreak):
It isn’t clear exactly how often fights break out at Chuck E. Cheese’s 538 locations…
But in some cities, law-enforcement officials say the number of disruptions at their local outlet is far higher than at nearby restaurants, and even many bars.
…
Law-enforcement officials say alcohol, loud noise, thick crowds and the high emotions of children’s birthday parties make the restaurants more prone to disputes than other family entertainment venues.
The environment also brings out what security experts call the “mama-bear instinct.” A Chuck E. Cheese’s can take on some of the dynamics of the animal kingdom, where beasts rush to protect their young when they sense a threat.
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This article describes a brawl involving 80 people at a Chuck E. Cheese in Flint, Michigan earlier this year:
Police still aren’t sure exactly what sparked a brawl among 80 people Saturday night at Chuck E Cheese, 3489 Miller Road.The first call came in at 8:53 p.m. concerning a fight among three teenage girls at the pizza parlor. A Genesee County Sheriff’s paramedic and state troopers quickly got the fight under control, and canceled other officers headed that way to back them up.
But a few minutes later, the officers sent out a second call as the fight erupted again, and quickly turned into “a knock-down, drag-out between 75 and 80 people,” said Flint Township police Sgt. Tim Jones.
Maybe Chuck E. Cheese has struck just the right balance of low entertainment to kid ratio, annoying sounds and flashing lights, and crappy parenting that would drive anyone to smack the person next to them.
Add an economically depressed city as a backdrop and it’s over.
—
Here’s a music video that seems to accurately capture the zeitgeist of the situation:
I wouldn’t usually post something like this, cause I think people have their own opinions about American foreign policy and I’m not trying to nag or put up a lot of of this kind of content.
But I wanted to mention the story of the first guy interviewed, Fernando Suarez del Solar.
He was really active in the anti-war movement when I was living in San Diego.
His son, Jesus Suarez del Solar, was one of the first soldier fatalities in the Iraq war.
He was killed when he stepped on an unexploded cluster bomb – an American weapon which very arguably violates international humanitarian law.
A long time ago, I listened to Fernando give a talk about losing his son and about a visit he made to Iraq.
His purpose for going was to show his solidarity with the Iraqi people’s desire to end the war.
—
Here’s an interview with Fernando from a while back.
I didn’t realize this but he says U.S. military recruiters were going to Mexico to recruit at Mexican schools. I believe Jesus was awarded U.S. citizenship posthumously.
This is pretty incredible (from the Statesmen.com):
Amanda Jones, 109, the daughter of a man born into slavery, has lived a life long enough to touch three centuries. And after voting consistently as a Democrat for 70 years, she has voted early for the country’s first black presidential nominee.
(via Cynical-C blog)
TPM’s got a cool story about call center workers who just got up and walked.
