The Art Of Manliness | Famous Man Caves

Theodore Roosevelt's Trophy Room

Henry David Thoreau's Cabin

Mark Twain's Billiards Room

In reading about the lives of history’s great men, one thing I’ve noticed is that many of them had a place they could go to be alone with their thoughts. Some of these men had a study where they would retreat to think, read, and write. Others had a garage or workshop where they would tinker and experiment. But what all these rooms had in common was their sheer manliness. They were man spaces, places a man could call his own.

[In this article] we give you a look inside the man rooms of 14 famous men from history. Within these rooms they formulated ideas that would change the world, wrote books that remain classics, and revitalized the dynamic manliness that drove their success. While we all can’t have a Carnegie-esque study, perhaps you’ll find inspiration from these manly spaces to spruce up your own room or simply the push to find a place where you can get away from it all and in tune with your manliness.

See more man caves at The Art of Manliness.

Via Neatorama

Happy Birthday, Bisou

Bisou and Edgar are one year old today.

Regarding Useless University Websites

Thank you.

xkcd

Happy Friday | Is She With The Band?

YouTube

Via CDaN

America In Color: 1939 To 1943

Tenement District, Brockton, Massachusetts | December 1940

Photo by Jack Delano

State Fair, Rutland, Vermont | September 1941

Photo by Jack Delano

Whinery Family, Pie Town, New Mexico | October 1940

Photo by Russell Lee

Young Boy, Cincinnati, Ohio | 1942 or 1943

Photo by Jack Vachon

Shulman's Market, N Street, Washington, D.C. | Between 1941 and 1942

Photo by Louise Rosskam

Woman Riveter, Tennessee | February 1943

Photo by Alfred T. Palmer

These images, by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, are some of the only color photographs taken of the effects of the Depression on America’s rural and small town populations. The photographs are the property of the Library of Congress and were included in a 2006 exhibit Bound for Glory: America in Color.

More photographs here.

Via Dangerous Minds

Not For Eating | Carnitas The Pot-Bellied Piglet

YouTube via TDW

Finger Painting On The I-Pad | David Kassan

YouTube

From artist David Kassan:

A quick Apple ipad ... fingerpainting demo that I streamed live from my Brooklyn studio on Monday June 21st, 2010. The model sat for 3 hours as I painted and answered questions on how I use the iPad and the Brushes app. Just thinking of creative uses for the ipad.

Drawn: The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

Proving The Theory Of Structural Balance

Pardus

A new study analysing interactions between players in a virtual universe game has for the first time provided large-scale evidence to prove an 80 year old psychological theory called Structural Balance Theory. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that individuals tend to avoid stress-causing relationships when they develop a society, resulting in more stable social networks.

The study ... analyses relationships between 300,000 players in an online game called Pardus. In this open-ended game, players act as spacecraft exploring a virtual universe, where they can make friends and enemies, and communicate, trade and fight with one another.

Scientists currently study data from people's electronic interactions, such as emails, mobile phones and online retail behaviour, to improve our understanding of human societies. Online games such as Pardus produce vast amounts of data that scientists can also use to study interactions between players, applying their findings to understanding the way that people interact in society.

Structural Balance Theory is an 80 year old psychological theory that suggests some networks of relationships are more stable than others in a society. Specifically, the theory deals with positive and negative links between three individuals, where 'the friend of my enemy is my enemy' is more stable (and therefore more common) than 'the friend of my friend is my enemy'.

Read more at Science Daily

Via Neatorama

Happy Birthday To Me | No, Really, It's Today | 500th Post!

Lanny-yap is one year old today. I counted wrong and congratulated myself prematurely on 8 July.

When I started Lanny-yap last summer, I set a goal of 500 posts in one year. It took some jiggling, but I'm happy to say that this is the 500th post!

Many thanks to everyone who has supported the blog over the past year. I do this for my friends, and it feels good to know that it's appreciated.

Monkey Monday | Separated At Birth?

Orange Sunshine | The Story Of The Hippie Mafia

Vimeo

An interview with Nicholas Schou, author of Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World. The inside story of the infamous gang of dope-dealing surfers who played a key role in the counterculture of the Sixties. It's a mindblowing --and improbable-- tale of drug smuggling, large scale marihuana farming and LSD distribution --basically, it's the hidden history of how America got turned on. The story of the Brotherhood might've gone to the grave with the participants if not for Nicholas Schou's intriguing history.

Via Dangerous Minds

Cupcake Cocktails

We like to shake our cupcakes in a cocktail glass using colorful melted frosting for the mixer. You can garnish your cupcake cocktail with candy and sugar to look like your favorite Mojito, Daquiri, Cosmo, or even a Shirley Temple. Not only do they look great, serve them with little dessert forks and they are easy to eat and carry around too. It's a perfect party dessert served in a perfect party dish.

Get the recipes for these Cupcake Cocktails and see more amazing creations at Hello Cupcake.

Via Nag On The Lake

Recovering From A Romantic Breakup Is Like Recovering From Cocaine Addiction

Ari | Absurdist Nonfiction

Abstract:

Romantic rejection causes a profound sense of loss and negative affect. It can induce clinical depression and in extreme cases lead to suicide and/or homicide. To begin to identify the neural systems associated with this natural loss state, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study 10 women and 5 men who had recently been rejected by a partner but reported they were still intensely "in love." Participants alternately viewed a photograph of their rejecting beloved and a photograph of a familiar, individual, interspersed with a distraction-attention task. Their responses while looking at their rejecter included love, despair, good, and bad memories, and wondering why this happened. Activation specific to the image of the beloved occurred in areas associated with gains and losses, craving and emotion regulation and included the ventral tegmental area (VTA) bilaterally, ventral striatum, medial and lateral orbitofrontal/prefrontal cortex, and cingulate gyrus. Compared with data from happily-in-love individuals, the regional VTA activation suggests that mesolimbic reward/survival systems are involved in romantic passion regardless of whether one is happily or unhappily in love. Forebrain activations associated with motivational relevance, gain/loss, cocaine craving, addiction, and emotion regulation suggest that higher-order systems subject to experience and learning also may mediate the rejection reaction. The results show activation of reward systems, previously identified by monetary stimuli, in a natural, endogenous, negative emotion state. Activation of areas involved in cocaine addiction may help explain the obsessive behaviors associated with rejection in love.

More at the Journal of Neurophysiology

Via Gawker

Bacon-Wrapped "Turtles"

Mmmmmmm ... bacon.

Create a Bacon Turtle by forming a ground beef patty, topping it with sharp cheddar cheese, and wrapping it in a delicious shell of woven bacon. Use cut-up hot dogs for the head, legs, and tail. Bake it in a hot oven (400 degrees) under a loose covering of foil for 20-30 minutes, until the bacon is cooked.

To make your Turtle extra tasty, you might brush on a little Rick's Rajin' BBQ Sauce near the end of the cooking time and run it under the broiler.

Yummy bacon-y goodness.

Bacon Today and The Squirrel Queen

Thanks to Rick and Bill

Fanciful Helmets

See more design experiments from Kazakhstani marketing and public relations firm, Good.

Via The Presurfer

A History Of Mass Extinctions On Earth

Stephanie Fox | io9

Click image to enlarge

During [the] long history of planet Earth, massive extinctions and violent climate changes are the norm. We've created this infographic to help you chart the rise and fall and rise of life on Earth over the past few billion years.

Humans may have evolved during an unusual period of relative climate stability (despite those ice ages). What you see here are the biggest mass extinctions in Earth history and their places in the major geological ages of Earth. We've also got body counts - the line graph in the middle shows you how many species survived, which in some cases is nearly zero.

io9

Periodic Table Of "Mad Men"

Emily Miethner

Click image to enlarge

Flavorwire

Proletarian Posters

National Bonds for the Sino-Japanese War (Ministry of Finance, 1937)

In the 1930s, a new style of poster emerged that reflected the growing significance of the masses in Japanese society. These artistic posters borrowed elements from Western design and often incorporated bold slogans with political, economic and educational themes.

More at Pink Tentacle

Granny Has Some Issues

Vimeo

This film, nominated for best animated short film in the 2010 Academy Awards, tells the story of a seemingly sweet old lady who terrifies her little granddaughter at bedtime with her dark version of the Sleeping Beauty.

Directed by Nicky Phelan, produced by Darragh O'Connell, and written/voiced by Kathleen O'Rourke.

Granny O'Grimm via The Presurfer

From The Makers Of Daddy's Day Off

We All know that being a Mommy is a difficult job. A Mommy's Time Out is a well deserved break. These wines are delicate and fruity. They come from some of the finest vineyards in Italy where the best grapes are vinified, resulting in a long lasting finish. They are a great complement to food, or may be served as an aperitif.

Available varieties: Pinot Grigio or Rosso Primitivo.

Mommy's Time Out via The Daily What

ZOT!!!

YouTube via Neatorama

Knicker Stickers, Skid Outs, And Subtle Butts

Problems with smelly gas? This pack of 5 saving graces (also affectionately known as fart pads or fart filters) effectively filters the odor caused by flatulence; simply stick one in the right place and you're ready for a chili cook-off.

Each 3.25" square filter is made of soft fabric with an antimicrobial treatment on the side touching the skin. The fabric is impregnated with activated carbon, which faces the underwear or the pants and has a vast surface area for bad odors to adhere to and get neutralized. Two adhesive strips are strategically placed so you know which side is which. And at around 1/32" thick, you will never know it's there. Now with improved adhesive!

Visit Solutions That Stick to find out about Knicker Stickers, Skid Outs and their other products.

One Small Step For Man ...

NASA

Forty-one years ago today.

Pug Yells "Batma-a-a-a-n"

YouTube

For Tuggy

Periodic Table Of Nonsense

Click image to enlarge

Science, Reason, and Critical Thinking via 9GAG

Monkey Monday | Capuchin Cooperation And Fairness

YouTube

A pair of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) show very compelling signs of cooperation and a sense of fairness, by working together to solve a problem using tools, and then sharing the reward. They also seem to understand fairness: when unequal rewards are given to one monkey and not another, the monkey receiving the lesser treat.

From the BBC documentary Capuchins: The Monkey Puzzle.

Friends Of Irony

Link

Washington's News And Media Museum

YouTube

The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.

The Newseum is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. ... adjacent to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. The Newseum features seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces and visitor services. It offers a unique environment that takes museumgoers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made.

"Visitors will come away with a better understanding of news and the important role it plays in all of our lives," said Newseum Executive Director and Senior Vice President Joe Urschel. "The new Newseum is educational, inspirational and a whole lot of fun."

One of the Newseum's interactive features allows you to check out the front pages of lots of national and international daily newspapers in their original, unedited form.

Thanks, Rick

Ultimate History Quiz

How fast can you answer questions on American history? Each game consists of 10 questions. You have 20 seconds to answer each question. The quicker you answer correctly, the higher your score. You can save your score and challenge friends once you finish.

The History Quiz and other games are available here.

Via Neatorama

The Cat's Pajamas

As soon as the drugs wear off, I'm going to shit in their shoes.

The Urban Dictionary defines the "cat's pajamas" as "an adjective used by hipsters of the 1920's to describe a person who is the best at what they do. Also used to describe another person who is genial and fun to be with ... Usually indicating stylishness or innovation. Pajamas were a relatively new fashion in the 1920s. The term "cat" was beginning to be used as a term to describe the out going and unconventional jazz-age flappers."

TDW

Happy Friday | Bunny Grooming

YouTube

Via The Daily What

Trees, Sky, Galactic Eye | Luc Perrot

Trees, Sky, Galactic Eye | Credit & Copyright: Luc Perrot
Click image to enlarge

Is beauty in the eye of this beholder? [In June 2010], over Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean, a playful photographer with an eye for the sky took eight images and composed the above intriguing picture. The full fisheye frame shows everything above the horizon, including a lamp-illuminated landscape around the edges, and the zenith of the sky directly overhead.

The image, however, may be more than beautiful -- it may also be a scavenger hunt. Can you find the photographer's tent, the slope of a volcano (active Piton de la Fournaise), a picturesque shoreline, and the lights of the nearby town (Saint Philippe)? One remarkable feature of the above image is that its center contains the very center of our Milky Way Galaxy.

APOD

Periodic Table Of Meat

Click image to enlarge

Bacon is #1! Fantastic! I made it my screensaver! It even has a formula for TurDuckEn!

Pleated Jeans via Geekologie

If Men Would Just Step Up, Women Wouldn't Need The Right To Vote

Said by Kansas State Republican Senator Kay O'Connor in 2005.

Tea Party Jesus

Vaseline's Skin-Lightening Widget For FaceBook India

Skincare group Vaseline has introduced a skin-lightening application for Facebook in India, enabling users to make their skin whiter in their profile pictures. The download is designed to promote Vaseline's range of skin-lightening creams for men, a huge and fast-growing market driven by fashion and a cultural preference for fairer skin.

The widget promises to "transform your face on Facebook with Vaseline Men" in a campaign fronted by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur, who is depicted with his face divided into dark and fair halves. "We started campaign advertising (for the application) from the second week of June and the response has been pretty phenomenal," Pankaj Parihar from global advertising firm Omnicom, which designed the campaign, told AFP.

In 2005, Indian cosmetics giant Emani launched the first skin-whitening cream for men, called "Fair and Handsome", 27 years after the first cream for women. Since then a half dozen foreign brands have piled into the market for men, including Garnier, L'Oreal and Nivea, which promote the seemingly magical lightening qualities of their products in ubiquitous advertising.

In 2009, a poll of nearly 12,000 people by online dating site Shaadi.com, revealed that skin tone was considered the most important criteria when choosing a partner in three northern Indian states.

Vaseline Men Be Prepared FaceBook Page via Arbroath

Time May Be Running Out ... Literally

New evidence is suggesting that time is slowly disappearing from our universe, and will one day vanish completely. This radical theory may explain a cosmological mystery that has baffled scientists for years.

Scientists previously have measured the light from distant exploding stars to show that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. They assumed that these supernovae are spreading apart faster as the universe ages. Physicists also assumed that a kind of anti-gravitational force must be driving the galaxies apart, and started to call this unidentified force "dark energy".

The idea that time itself could cease to be in billions of years - and everything will grind to a halt - has been proposed by Professor José Senovilla, Marc Mars and Raül Vera of the University of the Basque Country, Bilbao, and University of Salamanca, Spain. The corollary to this radical end to time itself is an alternative explanation for "dark energy" - the mysterious antigravitational force that has been suggested to explain a cosmic phenomenon that has baffled scientists.

However, to this day no one actually knows what dark energy is, or where it comes from. Professor Senovilla, and colleagues have proposed a mind-bending alternative. They propose that there is no such thing as dark energy at all, and we’re looking at things backwards. Senovilla proposes that we have been fooled into thinking the expansion of the universe is accelerating, when in reality, time itself is slowing down. At an everyday level, the change would not be perceptible. However, it would be obvious from cosmic scale measurements tracking the course of the universe over billions of years. The change would be infinitesimally slow from a human perspective, but in terms of the vast perspective of cosmology, the study of ancient light from suns that shone billions of years ago, it could easily be measured

The team's proposal, published in the journal Physical Review D, dismisses dark energy as fiction. Instead, Senovilla says, the appearance of acceleration is caused by time itself gradually slowing down, like a clock with a run-down battery.

Read more at The Daily Galaxy

Via The Presurfer

Who Do You Write Like?

Me? Stephen King or Mario Puzo. To analyze a sample of your writing, go to Coding Robots.

Via The Presurfer

Happy Hump Day | Sleeping Corgi Puppy | Sparky Kibble Dancing

YouTube

I get this way for anything with bacon in it.

Via Jezebel

Religious Belief May Have Shaped Human Mind's Evolution

Brain scans of people who believe in God have found further evidence that religion involves neurological regions vital for social intelligence. In other words, whether or not God or Gods exist, religious belief may have been quite useful in shaping the human mind’s evolution. “The main point is that all these brain regions are important for other forms of social cognition and behavior,” said Jordan Grafman, a National Institutes of Health cognitive scientist.

In a study published ... in Public Library of Science ONE, Grafman’s team used an MRI to measure the brains areas in 40 people of varying degrees of religious belief. People who reported an intimate experience of God, engaged in religious behavior or feared God, tended to have larger-than-average brain regions devoted to empathy, symbolic communication and emotional regulation. The research wasn’t trying to measure some kind of small “God-spot,” but looked instead at broader patterns within the brains of self-reported religious people.

The results are full of caveats, from a small sample size to the focus on a western God. But they fit with Grafman’s earlier work on how religious sentiment triggers other neural networks involved in social cognition. That research, published in March [2009] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, suggested that the capacity for religious thought may have bootstrapped a primitive human brain into its current, socially sophisticated form.

Grafman suspects that the origins of divine belief reside in mechanisms that evolved in order to help primates understand family members and other animals. “We tried to use the same social mechanisms to explain unusual phenomena in the natural world,” he said. The evolution of our brains continues, said Grafman. “The way we think now is not the way we thought 3,000 years ago,” he said. “The nature of how we believe might change as well.”

Read more at Wired Science [October 2009]

Affirmation Or Disrespect? Family Dances At Auschwitz

YouTube

From Neatorama:

Jane Korman’s 89-year-old father Adolek Kohn arrived at Auschwitz in a cattle car over 65 years ago. In 2009, he returned to Auschwitz and other locations in Poland associated with the Holocaust and did a victory dance with his daughter and several of his grandchildren. See parts two and three of this project as well. When Korman first exhibited the videos in Australia, she received quite a bit of criticism ...

Jane Korman writes on YouTube:

On a recent trip to Europe, a family of three generations (a Holocaust survivor, his daughter and his grandchildren) dance to Gloria Gaynor's pop song 'I Will Survive' at concentration camps and memorials throughout Europe. This dance is a tribute to the tenacity of the human spirit and a celebration of life. Despite the systematic brutality and cruelty endured, we have still survived.

I recommend watching all three parts.

Hyperactivitypography From A To Z

From Chapter F

From Chapter P

From Chapters V and W

Studio 3 is an in-school design agency at the Graphic Design Department of Westerdals School of Communication in Oslo, Norway. Studio 3 was established in 2002 and [consists] of a handpicked selection of 15 truly dedicated 3rd year graphic design students.

I love typography and appreciate that only nerds who also love typography could have created this book. What a labor of love! Click here to page through the whole book. It's amazing.

Studio 3 via Neatorama

Monkey Monday | Could You Do This?

YouTube

Via 9gag

Vote For The Most Sexist Vintage Ad

Vintage Ads | Most Sexist Ad Contest via Jezebel