Meatmachine.info

I love this song about as hard as I can.

.

The British Psychological Society asked world’s leading psychologists to reveal one nagging thing they still don’t understand about themselves. Their answers (in 150 words or less) are a lot of fun to read.
…
Norbert Schwarz says incidental feelings still affect him, even though he is aware of them. “Some 25 years ago Jerry Clore and I studied how gloomy weather makes one’s whole life look bad — unless one becomes aware of the weather and attributes one’s gloomy mood to the gloomy sky, which eliminates the influence. You’d think I learned that lesson and now know how to deal with gloomy skies. I don’t, they still get me.”

One nagging thing you still don’t understand about yourself
(Via Boing Boing)

.

This seatcam video is pretty rad, me thinks.

Catamount Cyclocross Day 2 Lap 1 from colin reuter on Vimeo.

.

Also:

If you’re looking to go long-term with this (I am a cycling coach btw) then be prepared to understand that cyclocross is the most anaerobic thing you will ever do on a bicycle, bar none. Translation: if you do not like pain, don’t bother. Cross is the only discipline I can think of where you start out in a full sprint, then go FASTER. You’re essentially sprinting into and out of every barrier section, every turn, every change of surface… pretty much everywhere. There’s no respite. If you think this sounds fun, well, it totally is, but then I’m a pain addict adrenaline junkie. Also, don’t think that just because the races are short, that by definition they are easy. The funniest thing I’ve ever seen is aerobic athletes from other disciplines who are all like “oh hell, thirty minutes?! I can do ANYTHING for thirty minutes!!!”. Yea, okay Geronimo, tell me that on your fourth lap, when your legs feel like cast iron pilings, that 18” hurdle feels ten feet tall, that measly little 10’ runup looks like Mt. Everest, and all you really want to do is find a quiet corner to go lay down and die… or puke, your choice.

-How do you train for cyclocross races?

.

It’s the fetishization of European cityscapes, and the divisive one-or-the-otherness between the trop pratique and the trop sportif that I find so distressing. It is one of the primary problems in the perception of cycling in the United States. Bikes can be a part of culture, not just bike culture, but Dutch bikes aren’t the only magical keys that can do it.

Via The Joke Is Up

(Haven’t had much time to write here lately, but hopefully these little bites will keep this blog from completely wasting away.)

.

John Gruber and Merlin Mann gave a talk at SxSW that centered on writing well and personal publishing, but it’s admittedly extensible beyond just blogging.

“…we’re going to assume that you make things, we’re going to assume that you care very much about certain issues or topics, to a point where you’re really verging on obsession. We’re going to assume that it’s important to you, whether you’re a writer, or a photographer, or an interpretive dance choreographer, that you want to get better at it.”

There’s a lot of good in the first fifteen minutes of their talk, but I recommend taking the time to listen through. Don’t worry, their talk is just as smart as their title is smart-ass.

SxSW ’09 - Gruber & Mann - HOWTO: 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility!

.

I haven’t looked at my RSS aggregator for a few days, but tonight I found some nice things.

“Panda Tuesday; The History of the Panda, New APIs, Explore and You”

Explanation of some of flickr’s APIs, rainbow vomiting pandas, and interesting web jargon from the code.flickr devblog.

“Traktion Aftermath”

Track blog Hipster Nascar looks at a tiff in the fixed-gear-blogger-scene and concludes that we’re all on the globalized capitalist hipster bandwagon anyway.

“Kutiman, Big Media, and the Future of Creative Entrepreneurship”

Merlin Mann gets me all excited about the evolution of media and it’s inevitable but currently illegal future over at 43Folders.

Enjoy

.

Best with HD switched on, viewed in fullscreen, and with Yo La Tengo playing in the background.

via the Flickr HD Video pool.

See more of Smashcut’s fake tilt-shift miniatures here.

.

A short PSA directed by the Coen brothers:

Clean coal harnesses the awesome power of the word “clean”.

via BoingBoing

.

A short animation on the topic of climate change tipping points. It’s got a really solid pitch and weirdly cool imagery.

My favorite part is the corporate fat-men riding the skinny government like mules drawn by televisions off of a clif.

Well, that and the hopeful message at the end.

Here’s the homepage for Wake Up, Freak Out - then Get a Grip.

.