Everything2 New Writeups

Shackleton's Whisky (thing)

2009-11-25T02:13:33Z

Sir Ernest Shackleton's first expedition to the Antarctic was known as the Nimrod Expedition, which set out in 1907. During this journey, he set up his expedition headquarters on McMurdo Sound, near Cape Royds, by building a hut on the shore. Due to the extreme conditions in the Antarctic, this hut has survived (with some help) to the present day. Crates of supplies and equipment have been recovered from the hut, and the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust has been working to restore and preserve the site.

In 2006, members of the Trust were working to remove some ice from beneath the floorboards of the hut when they came across a happy surprise! Apparently, to keep it nice and safe, Shackleton or his men had taken two crates of McKinlay and Co. scotch whisky and placed them under the hut. They're still there, bottles apparently intact and sealed, underneath the hut.

What to do with this treasure? Well, the obvious answer - drink some of it! Although…

GOP purity test (thing)

2009-11-25T01:17:12Z

The GOP purity test -- well that's something new. The long name is the "Proposed RNC Resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates, and the document, proposed by some Republican National Committee bigwigs, sets out "ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle" -- of which candidates must pick seven to merit RNC cash in the 2010 election:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama's "stimulus" bill;
(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) We support workers' right to secret ballot by opposing card check;
(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) We support…

When I Grow Up (poetry)

2009-11-25T00:23:32Z

I'm awake and burnt now, like I never was,
It's grey and cold now, like it's always been.
Childhood wanes and morning beckons,
It's Monday now for the rest of my life.

It was nighttime then, and it seemed to seethe,
When we built it better and somehow stronger,
We were children, then, the future's better,
But it's cold and grey and dozing still.

Welcome to the Internet,
Welcome to your job.
Childhood isn't innocence,
It's just stupid, quick, and gone.

Mystery Google (thing)

2009-11-24T23:48:03Z

Mystery Google was created by Google as a form of entertainment, it seems. Basically, you type something in, but when you click "Google search" the result is what the person before you typed in. You can treat Mystery Google as a sort of fortune teller, or guide to life by asking it "what should I do?" and trying to get an answer that applies. It can give you a little fun if someone put in a joke before you, or it can lead you to new websites, music, and the like.

Some people will also put in their email address or phone number with a request for a story, a joke, sometime random, something about ninjas. These results are occasionally posted onto the website My Life Is Average, for example:

Today, I put in my number on Mystery Google, telling them to sing me their favorite Disney Song. Not about ten minutes later, I got a call, from a girl singing Hakuna Matata, then hanging up afterwards.

…

Why potheads should be eliminated (person)

2009-11-24T22:33:19Z

Ok here goes:
Actually, the discovery of the THC receptor site and the subsequent research and observations it has inspired conclusively refute the hypothesis that marijuana is dope.

Many important brain functions which affect human behavior involve the neurotransmitter dopamine. Serious drugs of abuse, such as heroin and cocaine, interfere with the brains use of dopamine in manners that can seriously alter an individual's behavior..... a drug's ability to affect the neural systems related to dopamine production has now become the defining characteristic of drugs with serious abuse potential.

According to the congressional Office of Technology Assessment, research over the last 10 years has proved that marijuana has no effect on dopamine-related brain systems....NONE

Marijuana should no longer be considered a serious drug of abuse because, as summarized by the OTA "Animals will not self-administer THC in controlled studies ..... Cannabinoids generally do not lower…

covered call (thing)

2009-11-24T21:26:25Z

Introduction

A covered call is an option strategy, in other words, it is a combination of an position in an option and a position in the underlying stock. In essence, it consists of a a long stock position, with one short call for each share. In this node, building a covered call, the reason to do so, and the rewards and risks will be discussed.

How to build a covered call position

First of all, one needs to have a position in a stock. It turns out that options, unlike shares, cannot be traded in single units. Rather, each option has a certain contract size. Normally, this is 100, although this should be checked before the trade. So, if you buy one option contract with a listed price of of for instance $2.50, you actually get 100 for $250. Ideally, the share position is divisible by this lot size, so for instance 1200 shares.

The idea is now to sell a call on those shares. A call…

fear (essay)

2009-11-24T20:57:06Z

If you have cyberphobia, you shouldn't be seeing this article.

Yes, we humans are faced with fears everyday. Some may be common, like claustrophobia, the fear of tight spaces, and others may be unheard of, like arachibutyrophobia, the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. However, fears all have one thing in common - they obscure our aspirations, desires, and dreams. We are not born with fear - we gain it as our life goes on. And, like all things, fear is temporary. However, fear is like fat - it takes work to get rid of.

Have you ever seen the movie Arachnophobia? Good movie, I know. If you haven't the basic plot synopsis is this - a doctor with a fear of spiders must face up to that fear to save his small town from a colony of extremely powerful arachnids. I'm not going to ruin the ending for you, but all I will tell you is this - the only way the doctor can save his…

Overused chord progressions (idea)

2009-11-24T19:19:51Z

Don't give up on the idea of coming up with a totally original, great new chord progression.

Some people think all the good ones have been taken. Debussy didn't think so. Duke Ellington proved them wrong. The Beatles broke the old boundaries quite successfully.

And so can you.

But first you have to appreciate the classic progressions. You have to learn why they've worked so well for so long. Then you can try to replicate their (well-worn) beauty in your own way.

You can't beat I-IV-V and ii-V-I for their logic and simplicity. There's no other way to play the entire Western scale in just three chords of three notes each. In a classic sense, they are perfect.

But they sure are boring.

Green Lantern (essay)

2009-11-24T19:13:52Z

The Green Lantern Corps is no longer vulnerable to the color yellow.

This represents a massive change to the core concept of the Green Lanterns, their power rings having always been portrayed as the most powerful weapon in the Universe, with only that highly specific weakness to hold them back. To understand how this happened, we need to go aaall the way back to 1992, in the miniseries The Death of Superman.

As many people know, given the massive hype surrounding the death of one of the most popular heroes in DC Comics, Superman was killed in 1992 by the supervillain Doomsday, who debuted in the miniseries, having appeared from seemingly nowhere. In the aftermath of Superman's death, four new heroes appeared to try to fill his place. One of these was really supervillain Hank Henshaw, also known as Cyborg Superman. Henshaw was working with alien supervillain Mongul to take over the Earth, in the process destroying Green Lantern Hal Jordan's…

Northern Lights (fiction)

2009-11-24T18:50:56Z

Little Jeanette sat on the lawn, staring upwards, mesmerized. The millions of magenta-coloured points of light exploded into a new image, this time of a flower, high in the Sunday night sky; slowly, like fireworks, they dissolved and reformed into a new image; Jeanette called to her father.

"Daddy, why does this man have four legs and arms?"

"Uh, I don't know honey." He yelled from the couch. Toronto was down a goal with a minute left, and just pulled their goalie. "It's, uh, uh,"

"Never mind!" called Jeanette, as a blue circle formed around the figure in the sky. She'd seen that picture before in her science textbook, and remembered the naughty bits were pixeled out. Da Vinci, that name appeared in her mind. But here he stood, in all his magenta glory, showing his manhood to all who could see.

Jeanette's father walked out onto the porch, grumpy; Toronto allowed not one but two empty net goals; typical. He released a beer…

Take these broken wings and learn to fly again (fiction)

2009-11-24T17:14:34Z

Previous

The soldier had died from gunfire. That was the only thing that was certain. Who had fired it, where it had been aimed, and why - all those and more were ghosts of guesses, unknown. He lay in the thin dusty gruel that passed for soil on Alcanteri Gamma, his blood mostly pooled in the dust around his midsection.

Perhaps ten centimeters from his right hand lay a gun.

Elsewhere on AlGam, machines fought humans; humans fought machines. Both humans and machines sought to escape the other - the humans by running into the wild areas that made up most of the planet; the machines - those of them that were able - by running up the ramp that had been built down from orbit. Thousands of the machines were leaving, fleeing up the gravity well that affected their crystalline and metallic flesh but not their essences. Some, newborn, rose with the wonder of the babe; others,…

sugar scrub (recipe)

2009-11-24T16:37:39Z

Sugar to exfoliate the skin; oil to moisturize it; maybe a bit of scent to make you feel divine. It's the simplest thing in the world.

You've got two options. You can pay a fortune for this stuff at Lush or Bath & Body Works or some other bourge emporium, or you can make your own two-month supply for about a dollar. The homemade stuff is at least as good as you get in the store, particularly if you add a bit of your favourite scent. But perfume is scarcely necessary -- what this is really about is sloughing off dead skin and softening what's underneath.

It's so easy that it barely qualifies as a "recipe," but this is what I do:

1 part white sugar. White sugar is grittier than brown. It's also cheaper, though this scrub is so cheap already that you probably don't need to worry about it unless you're a grad student or something.

1 part brown sugar. Brown sugar is moister/"mushier" than white. I like a bit of graininess to…

People wouldn't fall in love so often if it were more clearly marked (poetry)

2009-11-24T14:07:22Z

Where is the line between love and in love
Where does it start
And where does it end?
When do I add that tiny word in
When can I change from I love
To I am in love
With you?

Hypothetical, please
Don't tear up on me
I'm just asking
When do I know
To change the words
What is the difference
Between what we have now
And what they sing to the clouds?

And how can I pinpoint
The very exact moment
That I slip from love
Into love
With you?
And more importantly
Do I want to?

Chimerica (thing)

2009-11-24T13:47:56Z

"Chimerica" compactly encapsulates the symbiotic relationship between the two greatest world powers at the dawn of the 21st Century -- China and America (as in, the United States of). The word is fortuitously similar to chimera, a mythic creature formed from the melding together of parts from other creatures: part lion, part snake, and part goat. But this chimera may be instead part eagle and part dragon (or maybe also still part lion, since lions are also a theme used in Chinese culture).

The term traces to another pairing, that of historian Niall Ferguson and economist Moritz Schularick, who together argue that China is in the driver's seat in this interdependent situation, as it would not be as badly harmed by disengagement as the US would. In more recent days these authors have predicted the dissolution of the relationship due to the economic depression from which the countries are emerging in different and incompatible ways.…

I wanted to be (poetry)

2009-11-24T12:57:22Z

I wanted to be a singer
but my voice would break
on the high notes and wasn't
strong.

I wanted to be a musician
but my fingers slipped from the keys
when I'd grip them
like I was drowning.

I wanted to be a poet
but the words drowned the lines
fell off of the page
and washed away cheap Christmas decorations.

I wanted to be a soldier
rifle slung carefully
but the bullet casings
burnt my arms.

I wanted to be a Prince
but I wasn't born
to the right family
besides, I didn't have the nose.

I wanted to run
with my feet sore, bandaged
and still hopeful
but my heels wouldn't budge.

I wanted to see the you laugh
but you called my jokes dry, humourless
bitter
so I bit down 'till I bled.

I wanted to make you happy
as you woke
but you said nightmares
consume you.

Alternate Meaning (poetry)

2009-11-24T11:54:56Z

(This poem is written as a duet for a poetry night. The first stanza and the equivalent lines are to be performed by myself in deadpan formal style. The second stanza is to be performed by a good friend, (who may in fact be imaginary) in an ebullient childish manner. The final stanza will be improvised with jumbled up sentences getting faster and faster and making less and less sense until we both say the final line together. I've always wanted to do a poet-duet and I think this uses the idea as completely as possible while explaining a complicated idea in a simple manner. Constructive criticism is requested.)

Logical deduction concludes that
I cannot think about myself
unless there are two of me in one head.
When I meet schizophrenics
They soon realise that they are not so different.

I communicate with whispers and memories
and guide your emotions more than you know
to play games with you.
I…

It's bushfire season again (event)

2009-11-24T11:10:17Z

I thought I'd take a walk tonight, to watch the sunset. Sunsets are best when the sky is cloudy, but not clouded over. With the recent bushfire just minutes away from my house, the sky would be perfect. I and the dog stepped outside into a hazy world. Cars a hundred meters away were blurred over, the sky was filled with heavy brown-grey clouds.

My phone buzzed earlier in the night to tell me of a message from a friend who never messages me. Curious, I opened it and read: "Hey, are you okay? The fire is moving towards your place."

Fire? What fire? Certainly, the sky was hazy with smoke last time I looked, but sometimes barbeques go wrong, or the wind is just so that the smell of a fire all the way in the hills comes down to suffocate us. I open the various websites to check if any fire trucks have been paged to areas near me. Oh, yes, there it is. When I glance outside I can see the sky above a nearby…

Contemplating the Erectile Tissue Found in Nasal Passages (idea)

2009-11-24T08:31:29Z

Lying in bed, unable to sleep, my boyfriend told me I looked concerned. I wasn't upset at all; I was merely thinking about the cold I'd recently contracted. So I explained my thoughts:

When you have a stuffy nose, it's more than just a bunch of snot clogging the airway. Our nasal passages actually contain erectile tissue (yes, similar to that found in a penis). It makes sense - the secretion of mucous stimulates the tissues in your nose and they swell up. But it's so annoying to have a stuffed up nose. It makes your voice sound funny, it makes it hard to fall asleep, and it's a constant reminder that you're not well. So how to relieve it?
Well, considering that a primary factor is the tissue that's "erect" (my sister and I enjoy announcing that our noses have boners when we're sick), perhaps something that makes it difficult for a guy to get hard would also relieve a stuffy nose. I'm not talking psychologically of course - purely physical here. Thinking of…

Makybe Diva (person)

2009-11-24T05:29:09Z

Few horses gain great fame. Bucephalus may be the most famous simply due to the great length of time stories of him and Alexander the Great have lasted. There is, of course, the horse named Incitatus who was treated with the care and kindness of a royal, and was at one point considered by the current Roman Emperor, Caligula, to be made a consul.

As time moves on, we have Black Beauty, who, though fictional, is very well known. During the 30s there were such horses as Seabiscuit and War Admiral in North America, and Phar Lap for Australia during the 20s. All these horses have one thing in common: they're all male. Though that isn't the main difference between Makybe Diva and these others I've named. None of these horses won the same prestigious "Race that Stops a Nation" three times in a row.

Only five horses have ever won the Melbourne Cup more than once, and only fourteen mares have ever claimed the title.

As happens with many of Australia's…

Gish Gallop (idea)

2009-11-24T04:41:46Z

The Gish Gallop is a debate tactic named after creationist Duane Gish, who has a reputation for performing this technique in open debates. The Gish Gallop involves throwing so many lies, half-truths, misconceptions, and straw man arguments at one's opponent that he cannot possibly address all of them. The Gish Gallop works very well in open debates, but fails spectacularly in interviews, where the interviewer is able to maintain control of the conversation.

The reason the Gish Gallop works so well is because it is very quick and easy to make a statement, and very difficult to refute it, regardless of how inaccurate the statement is. A creationist can say, for example, that we have never found evidence of life spontaneously generating from non-life in jars of peanut butter. The reasons why we don't, why it's not important, and why it doesn't even fall in the realm of evolutionary theory are lengthy…

How do you know the fishes are enjoying themselves? (place)

2009-11-24T04:25:11Z

Often I see this lovely story reproduced. It goes something like this:

Two monks walk beside a river. One turns to the other and says,
See how the fish play! They are really enjoying themselves!
The second monk replies, You are not a fish!
How can you know that they are really enjoying themselves?
And the first retorts, You are not me!
How can you know that I do not know
that they are really enjoying themselves?

And the narrative ends and I think to myself MY WHAT A LOVELY STORY

ABOUT MONKS, WATER, FISH, PERCEPTION, AND REALITY. I GUESS
WE CAN'T REALLY EVER KNOW WHAT OTHER PEOPLE KNOW
BECAUSE WE AREn't them. It's true sort of!

The secret is that the story continues.

In my Zhuangzi (Columbia University Press. Translated by Burton Watson.)
the second monk exclaims, (and I am paraphrasing)
Yeah! But you're no fish! You still can't…

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (review)

2009-11-24T01:22:26Z

Author: Daniel H. Pink
Published: Riverhead Books, December 2009
Genre: Psychology, non-fiction.

A note: This book has not been released yet. It is well-worth reading, and I hope you make a note to look it up in a month.

Ever since 1949, when Harry Harlow found that monkeys worked harder at solving puzzles when they weren't rewarded, we have known that that our common sense understanding of motivation is not really adequate to explain animal behavior. As time went on, it became apparent that the same was true of human behavior. Over the decades evidence has slowly mounted, showing that sometimes rewards don't make us work better, and sometimes they make us work worse. People take longer to solve problems when they are paid to do so than when they volunteer, artists paint less critically acclaimed paintings when they are paid commissions, and parents are less likely to pick up their children on time when they…

Somewhere Else (personal)

2009-11-24T00:27:39Z

Even as I sit in my swivel chair finger-brushing my pencil skirt and shaking my round face "no", it's going on. Happening. Time is taking place. The chronology of the day, be it abhorrent or better, goes from one to two; from pinky to thumb.

The precipice of happening is always there. Darkness and falling and edges, same as always... beautiful, like a gravity star or fusillade, Time swallows.

It was me in winter just then, a spare moment before deadline to imagine happening elsewhere; other than where this pen of mine is clicking and the office staff mills with notions of grave importance.

Sometimes I think up ways in which I'd like to be swallowed. Like now, like as the pen clicks.

Somewhere near the equator, walking the line where beach and blue meet high tide. Peeling oranges in Fresno with the music at full blast. Naked beside you on a…

Matt Kane Overleaps the Gorge of Death (fiction)

2009-11-23T22:36:31Z

Matt Kane surveyed the scene around him with detached, clinical professionalism. It was one of the worst, most horrifying crime scenes he'd ever seen in his 20 years with the Aluchua County Sheriff's Office (Crime Scene Investigation division). There were at least three bodies here, possibly more -- they'd need to DNA-match all the scattered body parts before they'd be able to get an accurate body count.

"Holy spit, Matt, I ain't seen nothing like this since 'Nam," said Sgt. Edwin "Tex" Abalone. "What kind of sick mind could do this to people?"

"A very sick mind, Sgt. Abalone," said Matt, tucking his sunglasses into his…

Odearism (idea)

2009-11-23T22:32:11Z

Odearism is a term coined by influential documentary film maker Adam Curtis to describe the way in which certain political situations (military conflicts and other social problems) breed a sense of political apathy by the way they are described and represented in the media.

The clip was shown on Charlie Brooker's Newswipe where it is explained with Curtis' usual clear, straightforward articulation.

Essentially, it describes situations that become so complex with bad guys on both sides of any struggle to the extent that they can no longer be broadcast simply as political struggles with a clearly identified binary opposition between evil powerful dominant elite groups against the powerless and ultimately moral resistant forces. Where both victims and oppressors are both viewed as evil, traditional representations invented in the media are left redundant. Then we are exposed only to human beings cruelty towards each other. We can only feign sympathy with the response "Oh dear" as the only…