C'mon, Quit Reading this Already

Good to set as a homepage, if you're like me. Focus! [Source]

Mushroom Malai Revives, Reaffirms Indian Food Obsession [Recipe]

This malai looks way better than mine ended up looking. 

Also our camera isn't working at the moment.

For the first year or so after I started learning to cook, I rather lackadaisically stumbled through preparing mostly continental americana stuff - casseroles, kitchen sink stir fries, stuffed peppers, stuffed mushrooms, chilis, chowders, and so many other perfectly pliable forms of food. Even the occasional Thai or Mexican dish could be adapted to my then-bachelor sensibilities (cheap, quick, loads of veggies and often consumed while on my feet). The thing that's always appealed to me about these dishes, and about the general spirit of these sorts of foods, is their fluidity of recipe. Almost anything can be in a casserole. Got extra green onions? Yup, chuck 'em in. Olives?  Why the hell not? More garlic! More I say! —In this, one of my many minds about cooking, the down-home mode of cookery, I take recipes as vague suggestions at best and otherwise don't really bother with them. Or measurements either.

Pygmy Jerboa is a Cute Harmless Alien

More specifically, this particular dinosaur-like peculiarity of a rodent is a Baluchistan Pygmy Jerboa (Salpingotulus michaelis). They're indigenous to an area of about 5000 sq/mi in northwest Pakistan, though they might also exist in Afghanistan. Beyond what has been gleaned in the field, not much is really known about them according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), the most widely-accepted scientific authority of its type. They're sure it's vulnerable to some threat, but, humorously, there's not enough data to say what it is with certainty. What facts there are paint the picture in my mind of a jumpy-hamsterlike society that is just darling.

It is a nocturnal, loosely colonial [aww], gregarious [d'awwww...], herbivorous [eating little leaves, aww...] species occuring in rolling sand dunes or barren flat gravel and sandy plains in hot deserts.

[Molur et. al, 2005, a zoologists' report: "Status of South Asian Non-volant Small Mammals", p 192]

In fact, here's the full write up of the little guy from page 192... [Click to Enlarge]

The thing is, even though they're classified only as "vulnerable" rather than "endangered" or even "critically endangered", they're still not pets. They'll need to be monitored closely in their habitat, which means that everyone's curiosity about mail ordering one is, at this point, misspent. Perhaps we'll be successful at keeping them around, and one day you can have one hopping all over your keyboard, making what I imagine are little gibbery-scriggly noises.

I wonder if this is a researcher who filmed this nugget of internet goodness. Perhaps that explains the decision to weigh the little bugger. Or maybe it's just that it's so lightAs somebody in the comments section of That Cute Site: "He almost weighs an eighth!" Just about. :)

Related: Info on IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species

Oklahoma Man Arrested for Dancing

Well, ok, dance-trespassing. Eddy Khaodevanpheng, a 22-year old Oklahoma City resident, was arrested today at an OKC convenience store for refusing to leave when management asked him to please quit getting down in their establishment. Obstinate, he claimed he was "fighting for his right to dance" and did so around the gas station and back and forth across the nearby intersection, presumably to ward off potential threats to this basic funky freedom.

Police told the man to leave after he informed them he was fighting for the right to dance, and he "danced across the parking lot to the McDonald's where he stood and watched us while dancing,” an officer wrote in the report. He then danced back across the parking lot to the Valero, where he was arrested.

When asked why he returned to the gas station, the man told police he was "following the leader,” the report states. He said the arresting officer was the leader because he had a radio, pepper spray and a gun, and police replied by saying he was going to jail because he "didn't listen to the leader. 

It doesn't seem like the cops or the management really got it: who he was fighting and what was at stake. But it doesn't really matter - clearly, his commitment to the fight should have been persuasive enough. What I can't seem to find is a description of the kind of dance: was he crunking? Voguing? Doing the Charleston? I imagine that this is the first case in a new type of neurological disorder where the sufferer constantly hears Daft Punk playing in their head and has no control over whether their ass follows suit, until they break down from dance-overkill. Fortunately, he didn't have to groove in lock-up for long; he's already been released to fight another day.

Related: Just four days ago, an Iowa-city teen booked for grinding with a giant angel statue in a local cemetery.

Americans Concur: Our Health Care's Shit is Wack

[Source: A 2009 PEW poll, via good.is]

I come from a zany, imaginary place called Oklahoma. It's Texas' hat, if that helps you place it on the map. And while I'm atypical for Green Country [in that I bailed on it], I like to keep up with it's ever-developing oddness. I'm still fond of it in many ways.

This is native Oklahoman, Biker Fox.

I'm tellin' ya, this place is seriously, truly strange.

One of the things I care less for that my state of origin and adolescence produces is its politics. Oklahoma, being so make-believe, has a tendency to elect some whimsical, silly jackasses for its officials. Sadly, I'm not talking about Biker Fox - no one's elected him yet. Who I mean is, for one, Republican Senator Tom Coburn, the little and loudest among the many conservatives who claim that the U.S. has the best health care in the world [we don't, even the CIA says so]. A new poll from the PEW research center demonstrates well the partisan divide regarding accurate health care assessment:

The stark political divisions evident in the current debate over health care are mirrored in opinions about how the health care system compares with those in other industrialized countries. Most Republicans say U.S. health care is either the best in the world (28%) or above average (29%). Democrats largely take the opposite view, with nearly seven-in-ten saying U.S. health care is either average (35%) or below average (34%). Independents have more in common with Democrats than with Republicans in their evaluation of America's health care. Roughly six-in-ten say health care in this country is average (32%) or below average (29%) compared with other industrialized countries.

Conservative Republicans stand out in their positive assessments of U.S. health care. Two-thirds (66%) say America's health care is either the best in the world or above average. Just 39% of moderate and liberal Republicans agree. There is a smaller ideological divide within the Democratic Party -- with 75% of liberals rating U.S. health care as average or below average compared with 67% of moderates and conservatives." [source]

This is despite the fact that the poll also says most Americans disagree, correctly recognizing it as comparatively average or worse.

Big shocker that nationalist pride in a 2nd or 3rd rate health care system plagued with equal access, delivery, and funding problems is correlated to income bracket, in addition to political affiliation.

There are plenty of weird, wonderful, and outrageous things about both Oklahoma and the U.S. that are worth keeping around - state fairs, noodling, Gary Busey. These things are our shared heritage. But what ain't worth writing home about are the politicians, bureaucrats, and, if you're not among the rich elite, the doctors.

Unrelated: a song by Colorado shoegaze band Weed Diamond, called "Oklahoma".

E-Z Hipster Art Recipe

A meme, made by Tumblr user marioandre.
Follow its example and be the good little dead-ends-of-western-civilization you are.

Most Delicious Mitosis Ever

Click image for best resolution. I've got my eye on that anaphase one.
Krispy Kremes baked by New York native artist Kevin van Aelst.
His other works also have a certain humor to them.

-interactive review of cellular mitosis
-KK copycat recipe. [Just a wee high in fat/cholesterol. Not recommended for a long life of continued, controlled cellular division]

Some of the More Tasteful Big Lebowski Fan Art

Found mostly on DeviantArt and Flickr.

gillyweed25, cross-stich

Thesauri Totally Got Shelved

[Source]

Legends of Benin [1969-1981]

Heavy horns, vocals with real flow, and some real down-home afro-beat hotness. Throw a gritty funk dance party and then all fly over to Benin to meet up with the rest of your friends, the Beninese. From the back:

A collection of super rare and highly danceable masterpieces recorded between 1969 -1981 by four legendary composers from Benin, Antoine Dougbé, El Rego, Honoré Avolonto and Gnonnas Pédro, each one of them with their own distinctive sound. This compilation comes with a 40 page full colour booklet with ultra rare pictures and biographies. Fasten your seat belt and enjoy the mind blowing sound of Benin.

1. Gnonnas Pedro Et Ses Dadjes  - Dadje Von O Von Non 3:53

2. El Rego Et Ses Commandos  - Feeling You Got 3:44

3. Antoine Dougbé  - Honton Soukpo Gnon 7:05

4. El Rego Et Ses Commandos  - E Nan Mian Nuku4:26

5. Honoré Avolonto Et L'Orchestre Poly-Rythmo  - Tin Lin Non 8:48

6. Gnonnas Pedro Et Ses Panchos  - Okpo Videa Bassoruo 3:30

7. Antoine Dougbé Et L'Orchestre Poly-Rythmo  - Ya Mi Ton Gbo 6:34

8. Antoine Dougbé  - Nou Akuenon Hwlin Me Sin Koussio 5:03

9. Honoré Avolonto  - Na Mi Do Gbé Hué Nu 6:44

10. El Rego Et Ses Commandos  - Vimado Wingnan 3:01

11. Honoré Avolonto Et L'Orchestre Black Santiago - Dou Dagbé Wé 4:26

12. El Rego Et Ses Commandos  - Djoblimé 2:31

13. Antoine Dougbé  - Kovito Gbe De Towe 6:39

14. Gnonnas Pedro Et Ses Dadjes  - La Musica En Verité 7:09 

Much love to all four of these legends. My personal favorite sound is Gnonnas Pedro for his driving intro track, Dadje Von O Von Non, and for his wandering, building closer, La Musica en Verité.

Try it out [via Little Vibrations] and then buy it direct from label Analog Africa. Also highly recommended from them: African Scream Contest

Alexandro Garcia Lands Art Saucers on 3rd Eyes

Guerror del arco iris, 1990 

Uruguayan Alexandro Garcia saw something in the sky that changed him permanently. Attempting to describe his UFO experience impelled Garcia to develop his natural gift for drawing and painting. With no formal training, he built his chaotic style upon piece after piece etched with common pens, pencils, and on any available paper, such as the back of an almanac. With time he began to elaborate his style, bringing forth eye-poping colorscapes, convoluted geometries, and visions of psychedelic Other-worlds. His collections are considered in the vanguard of so-called "outsider art" [whatever, that label is hegemonic] 

[Via Synaptic Stimuli, this flickr photostream, and the Christian Berst Galerie d'Art]. 

[Click each for full effect] 

En Algun Lugar, 2008

Energias, 2008

Armonia Estelar, 2009

Worst Oil Spills in Global History [Infographic]

Infographic drawn by Gavin Potenza and found via wpbeginner. Last updated 6/14/10 with information from ITOFP, a non-profit fund started by oil tanker owners who seek out responses to oil spills and other similar ecological disasters [original source of data].

Follow the Deepwater Horizon disaster @ Reuters.

Design Tweaking

Any comments or complaints about the new look are welcomed. I'm not sure how I feel about it myself. I think it's easier to read...

70s Thai Orchestra [Maybe Not from the 70s, Maybe Not from Thailand]

Psychedelic, country jam-band style molam (or mor lam; a traditional genre of Lao song, literally meaning "expert song" or "expert singer"). Nothing more is known for certain about the album: who recorded it, how many performers there were, whether it was for profit or private use. It's a bit of a mystery. It might actually be a record called Siamese Temple Ball, but there's debate and general confusion whether or not this is true. Personally I hope it is, because the liner notes of that record have this to say for itself: 

Flight comes to Thailand in the Year of the Rat. Siamese Temple Ball provide the lilting soundtrack for a chemical journey. Schoolgirls dance bashfully for the expectant throng. Life continues at a comparatively slow pace away from the rigours of fierce sun-light. 

[which was then followed by the label's description]

In the tradition of Sun City Girls, Ya Ho Wha 13, The Spacious Mind, Taj Mahal Travellers, Mu, Word of Life, Group 1850, and Ghost, Siamese Temple Ball give maximum pleasure for thirsty brains. [label source]

Yeah, that describes 70s Thai Orchestra pretty well. Get into the complex interchange of the phin pya, the electrified khene, and some wicked-ass thumping percussion (haha, hyphens). It's a big party that took place who knows how many years ago. I'd recommend cranking it and inviting a few friends over to groove the hell out.

70s Thai Orchestra

8 Reasons to Listen to Gorillaz' Plastic Beach [2010] Right Now

1. In a single (mostly trip-hop/pop influenced) album, Gorillaz manages to feature Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, De La Soul, Paul Simonon, Mick Jones, The Lebanese National Orchestra for Oriental Arabic Music and f-ing Lou Reed (among others).
2. Damon Albarn and associates really break out of the 4-cartoon-characters mold that they've so well established. Sounds like Jamie Hewlett is sick of drawing the same band members over and over again. And can you blame either of them? Imagine that you were in their shoes when faced with a demanding planet Earth who really love these four characters, and a record company that stands to make a hunk of profit as well, how would you navigate it? Evolve the characters. Develop the sound. This one doesn't sound like the 2001 eponymous debut and certainly not like Demon Days. Some of the same character voices are there, but they're all speaking the socially, politically, and environmentally charged core of album.
3. Oh, right, throughout the record there is a brilliant double-metaphor. The basic message as I have distilled it is that A) the planet is dying, we are it's murderers, and in the near-future, survivors will pass the time cooking up wicked rhymes, pirating, and succumbing to carcinogens in the air. Considering this, the use of grime-style flows throughout the album rises to the level of the heavily symbolic and B) as a culture, we're too demanding on our artists. We want music now, high turnaround, regardless of how crummy or played-out it sounds- when the demand is so high, with so little appreciation for production quality, when no one is willing to pay for it. Which is why there's so many cheap, plastic, interchangeable, so-called pop musicians around. It's increasingly toxic to the medium and soon enough, artists won't put any care at all into their releases. This dually impoverished dystopian future will be bleak and make use of several sick bass lines.
4. Hence, Plastic Beach was 5 years in the making (which really seems to be part of the point of the ridiculously catchy track "Superfast Jellyfish") Real quality is never on-demand. It takes time to percolate an album as complex, clever, and bangin' as this one.
5. You won't be able to stop listening once you start. I've heard it around 7 or 8 times this past week and it's not gotten old.
6. The first half of "Empire Ants" is built on a reggaetón beat that manages to not suck at all, a milestone for reggaetón.
7. You could be the first one on your block to do a sweet extended house remix of "On Melancholy Hill" and be adored by all. Unless, oh wait, somewhere out there on the internets someone already beat you to it. 

8. Preview it here then run out and buy it up. I can't wait until it's out on vinyl!

Philip Zimbardo: "The Secret Powers of Time"

Though psychologist, author, and lecturer Philip Zimbardo is best well known for his work on the topic of evil, he has also spent a lot of time researching time. This clever, well animated short helps demonstrate his argument that we don't pay nearly enough attention to perceptions of time - our own, those of the people around us, those of cultures around the world. Video by the RSA.

Or check Zimbardo delivering an even briefer version of this talk on TED. You know, if you just can't sit through 10 minutes of awesome animation (you future-oriented people out there).

--

-Zimbardo's homepage

-Info on the (in)famous 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, for which he is best known

-And though he's no longer researching evil, he still uses his knowledge to help explain Abu Ghraib [via TED].

Kabul: 1970-2010

Click image for larger size. [Source]

Why Men Don't Have To Die So Early (But Do Anyway): Sex and Gender Differences in Longevity

[Source] Data from August/September, 2001.

In a recent course on gender role socialization, I had the opportunity to do a bit of research into longevity, which is becoming a pet topic of mine. In doing so, I found a lot of information about why men die earlier - about 5.4 years earlier in the U.S. - than women. It seemed silly for only one person, a professor, to read it after I'd spent time on it. Especially since there is so much that men (both very gender-typed ones and males who eschew the label) in the internet audience, can do a lot to change health trajectories and add years to life. In just one testament to the amount of control we really have over our health, Dan Buettner, a researcher who focuses on twins' health outcomes and longevity, says that people, regardless of sex, have it within their power to add as much as 10 years onto their lives. With that in mind, enjoy factsnacking on this bloggofied version of the paper.

[Oh, and please forgive the writing style; I'm a social sciences person and we can be a little stiff like that. This is by no means a complete or exhaustive review of the literature on this, just a lil' something to raise awareness. As with all my original content, comments enouraged]

For more on why gender roles do real, measurable damage on men and women, see William Pollack, A New Psychology of Men, and the wiki on gender roles.

---

Despite the longstanding patriarchic belief that females are naturally the weaker sex, modern research clearly demonstrates that men have significantly more impairments in physical health behaviors, predispositions, and outcomes. The mortality rate in the U.S. for men is consistently 1.5 to 3 times higher until 85 years of age. Men make up 70% of heart attack fatalities before the age of 65 as well as the majority of cases of mouth, throat, skin, and urinary organ cancer (Kilmartin, 2010, p. 178-9). Typically, men die 5.4 years earlier than women and have a 43% greater age-adjusted mortality rate (class notes). This has been the status quo long enough that the New Oxford American Dictionary makes reference to women as exemplar for longevity: “the greater longevity of women compared with men” (Longevity, 2005). Why should it be the case that so many more men die at younger ages? Why is it that women have a lead in longevity? Some theorists point to biological rationales, saying that differences in specific attributes of physical development are the root cause. Others point to social and psychological sources for the gender gap. These explanations are not mutually exclusive; framing the issue as nature versus nurture is a false dichotomy. In fact, the biological, socio-cultural, and psychological realms interact in a complex and recursive fashion.

College Graduation Rates [Infographic]

Congratulations to all students graduating this past May! As I've done that myself, I have been on the road for the past few weeks, camping in North Carolina's scenic and psychedelic outer banks, visiting an organic brewery or two. Now that I'm back, and back favoring the virtual world for the real one, I thought I'd share some graduation related info with all you intellectually curious types.