Virtual Flaneurism

Pick a Number

by Paul Rudnick

Alfred Kinsey believed that human sexuality could be charted on a scale of 0 to 6, with 0 being “Exclusively heterosexual” and 6 being “Exclusively homosexual.” Owing to changing cultural boundaries and advanced research, Kinsey’s scale has recently been expanded:

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This was definitely me at two in the morning last night, Zelda in hand.

Finals? What finals?

The only thing that would make this better is if he didn't have the mustache. Gay Baby Mario!

Fun fact: He actually became a comedian.

(PS. On that video, best comment award: "Gregg Gethard, still speaking into the mic way too mfing close to his mouth after all these years.")

Dat LEGS.

A great article about why Ron Paul is one of the most dangerous Republican candidates today, illustrating how America, under his reign, would become an uber-Plutocracy, a country lending absolutely no support to the poor, the middle class, minorities and everyone who isn't lucky enough to be on the right side of the market. More frightening? The fact that so many of his supporters misread Ron Paul's motivations, in that his rejection of any and all government involvement is often mistaken through correlation for partisan endorsement of a particular issue or stance.

Also, it seriously troubles me when a large chunk of your political stance is "throw the baby out with the bathwater."

I read an article a month or two ago about the physiology of how we enjoy music. The article (which is lost to time, so you'll just have to trust my recollection, and that the article exists at all) suggested that your brain releases serotonin or some other pleasure-inducing hormone twice for each bit of music you hear. The first release comes from the act of "predicting" the note/chord/progression about to occur, and the second release comes in reaction to your "prediction" being right.

This makes a lot of sense, considering what music is most popular. Many popular songs involve more generic chord progressions that follow easy to follow patterns, which are therefore easier to predict and would more easily elicit hormone releases. This also explains why tone deaf people wouldn't enjoy music -- they can't "hear" the tones correctly, so their brains fail at or elect to avoid "predicting" outright, meaning they get no pleasure from music.

Like most things, I would imagine some of us are better at deducing future notes than others. This may explain varieties in musical taste, like jazz, which I imagine would be more complicated to predict. It also would touch on why some people may dislike pop music, which is generally simpler and would, for someone with more skill in predicting upcoming tones, pose an underwhelming challenge.

I like this idea; it means that listening to music is an active experience, and somewhat akin to solving a puzzle. Your brain works to figure out what tone logically comes next, and derives pleasure from being right. Amusingly, in this scenario, your brain is a smug and self-satisfied ass who enjoys music because it's good at listening to it.