While Syndromes and a Century is ostensibly about Weerasethakul’s parents, it also concerns itself with many images that depart from this main thread: a wild and root-tangled orchid filling up the backseat of a car, pleading looks from not-so-distant admirers, a nearly limbless man dragging himself with his single arm across a sterile white floor, and furtive sips of liquor taken from a bottle hidden in a prosthetic leg. The deliberateness of cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom’s slow tracking shots, particularly pronounced in the second half, masks the film’s promiscuity; in one of the most quietly astonishing scenes, the camera fixes on Toey, Nohng, and a hospital colleague as they walk down the hall, gossiping idly. Instead of following them into the depths of the basement, however, the camera changes course, or rather steers forward, drawn to the open balcony view of lush green fields and the jungle just beyond it. The audio track, meanwhile, keeps pace with the doctors until they finally break character and joke about the number of takes they’ve already done, “playing the same scene over,” and admitting they’ve forgotten to take off their microphones. The reflexivity of this moment isn’t simply about Brechtian distanciation or postmodern glibness; instead, as the film’s title is unobtrusively layered onto the landscape, it recognizes the filmmaker’s own desire to experience the fullness of the medium’s sensual pleasures, here offered to the viewer as a resplendent gift. (via)
Why so few people are left-handed →
Right-handers have long accounted for 90 percent of the population, and scientists may have figured out why
Only one out of every 10 people are predisposed to favor their left hand instead of their right, ”a ratio that has remained constant for more than 5,000 years,” says Rick Nauert at PsychCentral. Why isn’t there a 50-50 righty-lefty split? Why aren’t all of us right-handed? New research from Northwestern University may have the answer. Here’s what you should know:
What exactly is this new theory?
Researchers are positing that the steadily low percentage of lefties “is a result of the balance between cooperation and competition in human evolution.” Humans have long had an evolutionary need to cooperate, such as when sharing tools or hunting in groups. And if most people use the same hand, it makes such cooperation easier. “The more social the animal — where cooperation is highly valued — the more the general population will trend toward one side,” says co-author Daniel M. Abrams.
Then why aren’t we all right-handed?
Because people aren’t purely cooperative. We compete with each other, too, and always have. “If a society was totally cooperative, then everyone would be same-handed,” says Nauert. But that’s not us. Our competitive streak ensures that there will always be lefties.
Why does competitiveness foster left-handedness?
Physical competition “favors the unusual,” Nauert says. For example, “in a fight, a left-hander in a right-handed world would have an advantage.”
What proof do researchers have?
To showcase the validity of their model, researchers turned to sports like boxing, fencing, and table tennis. In athletics, lefties are “overrepresented to the tune of about one in five,” says AFP, underscoring the competitive advantage of left-handedness. And the inverse is true for sports where handedness isn’t a factor. For example, “the number of successful left-handed PGA golfers is very low, only 4 percent,” says PhysOrg.
Nonnative
I AM THE ONE WHO CLICKS BANNER ADS. →
By: Mike Lacker, McSweeney’s
For many years, I have remained a presence in the shadows. You citizens of the Internet have gone about your lives, navigating to this page and that, reading articles, watching videos, exchanging messages with friends, but all the while a single question has clawed at your curiosity each time your focus breaks and you notice the garish blinking ads strewn about your web pages:
Who, who is it that clicks these banner ads?
The time to wonder has ended and the time has come to open your eyes and to see the truth, to discover who has been clicking that which you so often ignore.
It is I who click the banner ads.
While you check the weather, I find out why California dermatologists hate the one weird skin care secret discovered by a stay-at-home mom. While you read the New York Times, I rollover for more information about how to get my diabetes under control. While you search IMDB, I click for showtimes, tickets, and behind-the-scenes videos for Think Like a Man. Page after page, banner after banner, I click and I click.
It is not for myself that I click these banner ads, not because I yearn for exclusive local deals and belly fat-reducing tips. No, it is for all of you that I click to learn more, rollover to expand, and tap to download. Without me, your banners would go unclicked. And if your banners go unclicked, then who will pay for your web pages? Banners are the steam engine of the Internet, and I must shovel coal into the fiery maw.
It may be a sacrifice, to labor hour after hour, day after day, month after month in my secret lair, one hand on a mouse, the other on an iPad, furiously clicking and tapping every banner ad I can find. My ears have been calloused by movie trailers with autoplaying sound. My eyes have been warped and reddened by live streams of red carpet events presented by auto manufacturers. My hands have turned to gnarled claws from all the cartoon monkeys I have punched. My computer is but a shuddering pile of tracking cookies and spyware following my every move so that the next LowerMyBills.com advertisement I see is slightly better targeted to my gender, age, and browsing history.
Some may see me as a tragic husk, obsessed with duty but without friendship, without warmth, and without love for anything but all of you who I labor so hard to keep safe. I may have hundreds of free ringtones, thousands of exclusive promotional desktop wallpapers, and millions of special offer codes, but what good is a printable coupon for one dollar off a family-sized Stouffer’s chicken lasagna when you have no family?
But a hero is more than himself. I am the thin gossamer line between a free, sprawling internet and an oppressive desert bound in barbed wire and ruled by dollar-hungry warlords. Without me clicking to learn how New York drivers are saving hundreds on car insurance, you would be paying for what you are reading right now, throwing precious coin down an endless digital well.
So if you see a targeted text advertisement for debt reduction next to your email, know that I am there. If you see an animated custom background for the Call of Duty franchise, know that I am there. If you see a three-dimensional computer-animated dog run across the page and cover the video you are watching about dog food, know that I am there. Now get back to your reading, your posting, your downloading. The night will soon be over and there are still hundreds more credit card offers I must post to my wall.
howtotalktogirlsatparties: Handmade, literally.
I’m also selling one of my holy grails that I never wore because I never have to dress up. Very rare. Cloak elbow blazer from SS04 (Size S). Hit me up!
Selling a Patrik Ervell standard buttondown with club collar (Size XS) from FW08 that I never wore because I never have to dress up. $150. E-mail me.
lettertojane: Rick Rubin (Source: thepursuitaesthetic)
