The award for most audacious use of self-help language in the service of naked political gain probably belongs to James Baker, an adviser to George Bush in the chaotic weeks following the disputed US election of 2000. "At some point, there must be closure… for the healing and uniting [to begin]," Baker declared, in an effort to prevent further Florida recounts. It wasn't that he wanted Bush to win, you understand – he just wanted to help the nation achieve "closure".

not sure how I feel about this

“We know that the more hours of television a girl watches, the fewer options she thinks she has in life,” she said. “So there’s clearly a very, very strong message coming through — that boys are picking up too, by the way — that girls can’t do as many things as boys can.”

"What could be wrong with a gentleman opening a door for a lady? According to some social psychologists, such acts endorse gender stereotypes: the idea that women are weak and need help; that men are powerful patriarchs. Now a study has looked at how women are perceived when they accept or reject an act of so-called "benevolent sexism"* and it finds that they're caught in a double-bind. Women who accept help from a man are seen as warmer, but less competent. Women who reject help are seen as more competent, but cold. ..."

"Queue-jumping is a much greater cultural affront than desecrating an art work because the queue-jumper seems to be saying: "My time is more important than everyone else's." This is annoying because, deep down, it's what we all feel and suppressing that feeling is a monumental act of politeness and one which we secretly fear is corrosive to our self-esteem. We can't be standing there in a line, patiently subjugating our senses of self, if some people just don't bother. It's like bound feet – it's too mutilating a convention to catch on unless everyone goes along with it."

"I’m a 31 year old heterosexual woman who is appalled by the lack of male nudity in movies."

Very very funny. "My astounding and yet not at all unusual day in culture" by David Orr for @Awl http://bit.ly/idxuwq

dean & britta -- 13 most beautiful

Remember Tammy and Debbie Reynolds? There were slave quarters out back the house.

Thought-provoking. Pandas and Lobsters: Why Google Cannot Build Social Applications So maybe they should be themselves

A brilliant little scene about gay men, straight men and words - from one of the most brilliant comics around, Louis CK. In all this, there is a lovely American sanity - not too much defensiveness, a whole lot of candor, and a deep well of friendship

[greader] Steve Jobs introduces the Death Star

!!!

Folds Does Merton live before an audience at the Fillmore in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 20th, 2010.

t-shirt

"we love xkcd"

How to split up the US: what facebook tells us about the shape of the country. More: (via @brady)

Others have commented on this already, but this Shakespearean rewrite of The Big Lebowski is astoundingly good: http://bit.ly/4xvTws

Maira Kalman knocks it out of the park wiht this lovely piece: Back to the Land - http://bit.ly/7ukysV

...and here's a classic Mary Tyler Moore from DL http://bit.ly/sESPs (via @the_No_Show)
("CHUCKLES BITES THE DUST")

Facebook update used as an alibi http://bit.ly/2xtjn6

Aaand NEW TWN Beauty Contraptions!: http://bit.ly/upsfM

Great post from ArsTechnica:
100 years of Big Content fearing technology—in its own words

what if the world's most disastrous software demo was faked, foisted on a set of unsuspecting computer science students as a piece of performance art?

InformationIsBeautiful: Hierarchy of Digital Distractions: http://bit.ly/g8UuH BRILLIANT! via @allaboutgeorge

What the aliens are watching now.

great design...

on nina paley's film, "Sita Sings the Blues"

Texas leads the nation in spending for abstinence-only programs. It also has one of the highest teen birthrates in the country. Those two sentences together sound like the basis for a logic question on the SAT, but a really easy one.

"the daily pulse of cool" - from emily chang