best anti-virus hardware?

ps-wii?

linkified...

extreme disappointment

after seeing some of the new posts...i've come to the conclusion that we have some posters on this blog that haven't fulfilled their duties for this blog...u know who u r...

until then...

OK CUPID

JRGREENE and I had an interesting discussion about gender and compatibility. Now singles ladies, and single men (I suppose), I want to open the topic up to race, gender, and comptability. There is an interesting website run by OKCupid, called OKTRENDS that tracks the messaging behavior of their users. This makes for an interesting sample to think about how people choose a partner. Lots and lots of great data, pick and choose your favorite and lets talk about them. Mine are:

If you take a look at this series and the interval as men age, it's pretty obvious that men prefer women younger to them, and seem to be ok with women a few years older. But its pretty halarious the youngest possible match for old men is ~30years!

But if we look at women, they seem to be pretty reasonable--but they skew a bit older, but aleast the interval says relatively uniform as they age.

And of course, there is beauty. Which is to say that this chart maps women's overall attractiveness over time.

And it seems like, atleast for women, if you're hot, you stay hot. Now, that means a few things that are interesting to me--overall your attractiveness doesn't change despite your age. If you are in the top quantile of good looking women, you stay there --even compared to women in the same quantile of a younger age! The author says that this sample is taken from responses of available single women positing that your avg 35 year old is probably married and therefore has stopped optimizing her looks. I don't know about that. I would actually be interested to see how a representative sample of married and unmarried women would fare.

Let me know your thoughts, America. I know its taboo to rate people, and I've shied away from it, but I guess in this medium, where you do it annonymously from the comfort of your own home, makes me feel better about it, especially when you get frank results.

Edmund, an entirely irrelevant experience

Citizens of the blogodrome, I hope it goes without saying that of all our honored hosts, the last with whom I would strike discord would be Mr. Dreed.

Nevertheless, I cannot allow certain recent musings to go unchallenged. (Christ, how did people ever get to the point before the 20th century?)

The central issue with Edmund is not whether or not it needs to be entertaining. It's pretty clear that a game by the name of "interactive software" is one in need of having its glasses ripped off and casually torn at the bridge, but also one that might grow up to do some good someday.

My Word! Edmund, an entirely unpleasant experience.

I recently had occasion to sit in a dank, dark room and play one of those "electronically televised games". I say, chaps, a bit balmy on the crumpet, and I had a spot of the blue devils afterward. I hadn't been so befuddled since I caught my friend the broomsquire in a nasty jar with a clergyman's daughter. Unless you want to hear a lot of rubbish, I suggest you cut it to the snuggery.

Gorillaz Return in Stylo

Apparently, I live in a cave under a rock on the moon, because, despite my almost rabid fan-love I somehow missed the fact that the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach drops on March 9th. Featuring guests ranging from Mos Def to Lou Reed, I'd say this is something to watch for- well, if you need convincing. At this point, I'd say Gorillaz' legacy is more or less secure.

Interesting to note- despite there being a bit of talk (so said Murdoc, anyhow, back when Demon Days hit) that Gorillaz was going to be a trilogy, I'm not seeing a lot of last-album-buzz around this. Though I suppose hoping for a fourth album before hearing the third is a bit greedy. 

I'll give you my sage opinion as soon as I get my slightly furry hands on it, but until then satisfy your soul with Stylo- see the Noodle-bot (mourn for poor dead Noodle!), guess where the hell Russell is, and goggle with shock at the surprise guest appearance (whoa!). I definitely dig on the track: laid-back synth with a bit of dub and just enough sinister. Judge for yourself:

Stylo [feat. Mos Def and Bobby Womack] by Gorillaz 

Rube Goldberg Machines!

I've never been more than a passing fan of OK Go (last I remember of them was from my freshman year of college). However...I am a HUGE fan of Rube Goldberg machines, and OK Go has compiled one of the most excellent yet.

Part of the appeal is that, despite the continuously escalating complexity and absurdity of the machine itself, it all still has a homemade feel, like if you really had the patience, time and money you could rent a warehouse and make it yourself. There are some parts of the video where the continuity is a little questionable, but I'm all for hoping that it really is one machine as other articles suggest. Judge for yourself and enjoy!

This one's for Erotic Grotesque (David and Noah) --Zola Jesus.

In terms of blog hype, we've got a little gem here in Madison. Zola Jesus is gracing pages of every blogship in this blog-o-verse but just shy of critical mass. Maybe Pitchfork will do it. But now lets get down to music: Zola Jesus is interesting and well done pop. Too electronic to be chamber pop, but you get that vibe from the vocals. It's contemporary, operatic, and minimal, elegant and a little grotesque. Stuff I think David and Noah will like. Well to rub it in she's 20 studying philosophy and french here is releasing an EP this month. Hopefully this will get them out to a show.


On a side note, she's in the front running for actually being Liz's  doppelganger (conditional on her height):

Obviously Liz doesn't wear this much eye shadow. 

But here are some songs!

Nasa's Project M

M is for Murder Moon, (though it also probably stands for "Maybe") and I bet it has absolutely nothing to with the following video:



Ignore the slightly embarrassing enthusiasm of the vid, and think instead about what we got here: sure, Obama's cancelled space for the time being, but hey, maybe we could send robots to the moon. And maybe we could control them from earth. And, hey, maybe we could get this done really, surprisingly quickly for not that much money.

That sounds like some futurism I can get on board with. Or rather, futurism that I can fire at our natural satellite and remotely control.

AWESOME.