Who Cares.

Captain Obvious Does Exist

Astronomy Picture of the Day

NASA created this awesome site, which features a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe every day, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

Today (Aug. 31): OPEN CLUSTER M25 (see pic above) Explanation: Many stars like our Sun were formed in open clusters. The above pictured open cluster, M25, contains thousands of stars and is about two thousand light years distant. The stars in this cluster all formed together about 90 million years ago. The bright young stars in M25 appear blue. Open clusters, also called galactic clusters, contain fewer and younger stars than globular clusters. Also unlike globular clusters, open clusters are generally confined to the plane of our Galaxy. M25 is visible with binoculars towards the constellation of the Archer ( Sagittarius).

And I liked the entry from Aug. 27: A DARK SKY OVER SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK

(click to enlarge)

I Like Meat!

“ Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold. Oh, I’ll accommodate them, I’ll rummage around for something to feed them, for a ‘vegetarian plate’, if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine. ” - Anthony Bourdain

Fact: Heroin Cures Heroin

A recent study on heroin addicts was just published in Canada and it's got some interesting/ridiculous results:

"The study focused on addicts who took heroin for at least five years and had already failed two attempts at treatment. One of those attempts had to involve methadone, which helps manage heroin cravings and blocks the drug’s euphoric effects.

The goal wasn’t necessarily to get study participants to stop using heroin altogether, but to turn their addiction into a manageable fact of life instead of a source of high-risk, illegal and/or anti-social behavior."

Basically, there were 2 study groups - 115 patients who got to shoot up diacetylmorphine (the active ingredient in heroin) and 111 patients who shot up methadone, up 3 times a day, in a controlled clinical environment.

I know heroin is one hell of a drug, but isn't the point of treatment to get you fully, 100% clean so you can lead a healthy, happy life? I'm no drug expert, but isn't heroin 'being a manageable fact of life' a bit of a contradiction.

Anyways, the studies uncovered this: heroin addicts who were given free heroin "did better" than addicts given methadone. Yeah, no shit. It's heroin, the real thing! And what does "did better" mean, in a scientific sense, you ask? The LAT reports:

After one year, 88% of those in the [free heroin] group were still in treatment, compared with 54% in the methadone group. They were also more likely to curb their illegal behavior – including use of illicit drugs – by a margin of 67% to 48%.

Of course they curbed some of their illicit, street behavior because these super helpful doctors were giving heroin out for free like candy on Halloween! I'm convinced the doctors were sampling the goods!

Anyways, addictions and treatment are extremely complicated so I understand it's not that cut and dry, but go read the entire article, it's quite interesting.

via Gawker

PS. I'm too vain to do heroin. Be warned, that link is graphic!

Shit My Dad Says

Ohmyfuckingod! Go follow this guy over on Twitter, it's the funniest thing I've read all week!!

This 28 year old guy lives at home with his 73 year old dad and just tweets some of the more ridiculous things his dad says. He's a sassy, grumpy old man that I can't get enough of!

Daily Tunes

Have you heard about this little Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson collaboration? Inspired by Serge Gainsbourg's 1960s recordings with Brigitte Bardot, they recorded The Breakup, an album about a tempestuous love affair.

They released the first song, Relator, this week and I never thought I'd say this about a Scarlett Johansson song, but I LOVE it! It's so good! I know she gets a lot of shit for her music (she's not nearly as bad as everyone says) but Pete Yorn does great things for her on this song. I can't stop playing it!

Go take a listen and watch the video here, I bet you'll like it too.

Girls Like Funny Boys

Where can I meet this man?

New World Record

Last week, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set not 1, but 2 new world records at the World Championships in Berlin last week. What's up superman! He set the new 100m record with a time of 9.58 seconds.

When you break that down, it means he was running at 28 miles per hour. 28 miles per hour!!

Someone give that man a Wheaties box cover!

I need Winkers!

All I have to say about this is whoa. Someone get me a pair of these ASAP. For real. I need them.

Friend Love!

Well look at this! The Notches good friend, the lovely and talented Miss Bernadette Paolucci, was featured in Daily Candy today for her awesome rope necklaces! They're sold exclusively at The Notches favorite boutique - the best store in the whole wide world - Old Hollywood, so be sure to have a look around there!

We have the best friends ever!

True Blood Pie Chart

I love you, whoever created this lovely little pie chart! I fully appreciate your love and dedication to True Blood. And it's nice to see you know what's up in regards to Eric! And people, just check out the picture below if you don't know what all the blue on the chart means...

Drug Money

Dang. According to new reports, 90% of US currency contains traces of cocaine! And 2 years ago only 67% of US currency had coke on it. What happened D.A.R.E!

The researchers found that bills from Washington had the highest prevalence of cocaine, about 95 percent. Over all, $5, $10, $20 and $50 bills had more cocaine than $1 and $100 bills.

That little tidbit above surprises me. Why, you ask? Because a) they must not have tested bills from NYC, because I'm pretty sure it's percentage would be higher than Washington's and b) in this recession, you know people are broke and $1's are all anyones got!

(image via Gawker.)

Daily Film- Point Break

At some point this weekend, I plan on watching this cinematic surf masterpiece. Keanu Reeves is in fine form and Patrick Swayze is a tough dreamboat. Yes and yes.

Empire of the Sun - Walking On A Dream.

Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream

'Walking on a Dream' by Empire of the Sun is not a new song but it's brand new to me. And yes, it's solid gold.

I just heard singer, Luke Steele, is going to be on the new Jay-Z record - I must say I'm looking forward to hearing that collaboration.

New Facebook App Idea!

via dontstaylong, he's onto something here...

"let’s be honest: facebook’s entire point is to see what the more popular, prettier, more athletic people you knew in high school are doing, and then to make sure you’re doing better than them.

with that in mind, i propose Facebook: The Game: The App. A list of every person you’re friends with and a scale of 1-5 on who’s more successful/less fat/not living with their parents. bonus points are given if you know they live within a 5 minute drive to walmart (and are proud of that fact). at the end, you’re left with a score to accurately determine whether you’re Winning At Life or if you’re a Complete And Total Failure.

someone do it. we’re gonna make a million bucks."

ps. i googled 'a million bucks' and the picture above is the 4th pic that popped up. too good not to use.

Those Dancing Days

Oh Em Gee! I am in love with this band! Those Dancing Days are a talented, 5 piece all girl band from Stockholm, Sweden. Try listening to them without smiling and wanting to dance. Seriously, try.

Check out their song 'Those Dancing Days' too on their myspace. It's worth it if you like adorable, fun, dancy, upbeat, indie pop music. Now excuse me while I try to join the band.

Privacy Is So 20th Century

Face.com has launched a new Facebook application called Photo Finder - it's a face recognition application designed to tag pictures of you and your friends fast. It's still in beta mode, so it's not available to the general public yet, but it's treading on scary, big brother territory here.

Once a person uploads the app, it automatically scans not just your own pictures, but the pictures of each and every one of your friends. When the scan is done, it sends you a list of ALL photos you're in, which you can then choose to auto-tag yourself in or not.

According to Mashable, "Face.com seems to have an ambitious goal: to complete the picture social graph. No person left untagged, no photo left by in digital space, and every person in every picture tagged and sorted."

While I think this is convenient and fast, the issue of privacy comes up. Right now it doesn't seem to be too invasive, but think about how it's going to change and progress in a few months time.

Say you download the PhotoFinder app, are out at a bar with some friends and see an attractive person, lets call them Pat, across the room. You take a picture of your friends, with Pat conveniently in the background. You go home, upload the pics to Facebook. If Pat has PhotoFinder too, will that mean they automatically get tagged too? Which means that you could essentially find out who anyone was if they have this app.

This is where the big brother, creep factor comes in. Stalking people would be so easy. Seriously, would you want someone to be able to take a picture of you without your knowledge, upload it to Facebook and then, thanks to facial recognition software, know who you are? As of right now, it seems the app scans only your friends' faces, but still. The potential for this to be abused is high. Maybe I'm just reading way to much into this.

Mashable said it best: "PhotoFinder is a reminder that anything you or your friends put on the Internet is public domain and will probably be found one way or another."

via Mashable

Daily Awesome.

Photographer Michael Bosanko swapped spray cans for torches, to graffiti British landmarks in a new set of images commissioned by TalkTalk to mark the launch of an advertising campaign that uses the same technique. -via Telegraph UK

I'm looking forward to seeing how Talk Talk use Bosanko's images in their campaign.

Fact. Al Roker Is The Slimer.

My boss Ben has an intense hatred for Al Roker. At first I didn't understand - how can one hate Al Roker in the first place, nonetheless hate his guts with so much enthusiasm!? He's just a jolly ole weatherman, right?

Then I discovered this hilarious little article on Stereogum about another guys hatred Mr. Roker and it makes a bit more sense now. Not entirely, because I still don't mind the guy, but yeah.

The picture of Al up there reminded my coworkers of Slimer. Yes, Slimer of Ghostbusters fame. So I set out with my brilliant photochopping skills to see if this was true. And voila! They were right. Al Roker is Slimer. The resemblence is uncanny! Sometimes I love my job too much.

You Can Make Fonts From Google Maps?

Someone had some time on their hands. A researcher named Rachel Young created a NY state alphabet, based on images she found on Google Maps. Interesting.

via Flavorwire

Don't Judge My Hair

Another gem of a time-wasting site: Don't Judge My Hair. You're welcome.

Zoo York 'Sky High Series' Decks

"Italian photographer, Alessandro Zuek Simonetti is most known for his photographs of the youth, and New York street culture. He most recently teamed up with Zoo York to lend a couple of his photographs for their Sky High Series skate decks." via mashKULTURE

I absolutely adore black and white photography. If I ever get my own place and do it up proper, I want only B&W photography to adorn the walls. There is just something so timeless and glamorous about it. And the photos on these skate decks prove my point - NYC shot in B&W is just so right, on so many levels. Thank you, Zoo York.

Alas, these decks are far too pretty to skate on. They belong on my walls instead.

Summer In The City

...my summer anthem, in case you were wondering.

Sum-Sum-Summertime!

I have returned to NYC from my wonderful and very relaxing vacation in the land of oranges and old people, also known as Florida. Apologies for the lack of recent posts, but I tried to stay as far away from my computer as possible while gone.

Anyways, I returned to New York on Sunday and was greeted with a blast of humidity. The city if officially swampy now - I can't complain too much though, because I've continually whined about how summer, thus far, had forgotten about NYC. So the mugginess is here, and I'm embracing it (within the confines of my air conditioned bedroom of course).

When I do venture outdoors, I'm going to be on the lookout for this Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. How have I not seen this around yet?? It's amazing! Totally want some big gay ice cream right now...