Trig Palin Conspiracy Timeline
Phew! I was having a bit of a tough time following all the drama on the Bristol/Levi/Sarah/Trig drama front. Thanks to VF.com for this handy timeline to break it down for me. (via VanityFair.com)
How to Cheat at Everything: Tips from a Con Man
It requires avid study of psychology and body language. It’s an amazing paradox—a con man has incredible emotional insight, but without the burden of compassion. He must take an intense interest in other people, complete strangers, and work to understand them, yet remain detached and uninvested. That the plan is to cheat these people and ultimately confirm many of their fears cannot be of concern. Mr Lovell draws people in by mirroring their body language. He breaks their defences by entering their physical space.
(via kottke)
Whatever, all I know is that I can’t stop listening to this song by Francis and The Lights now that I’ve seen the video. The lighting, the Prince-like moves, the sound - it’s all amazing!
Besides having sex with men, liking this song is the gayest thing I’ve done today.
Learn about a standard Bel-Air if you’re confused.
The Professional Panhandling Plague
But over the last several years, the urban resurgence has proved an irresistible draw to a new generation of spangers. And while New York City’s aggressive emphasis on quality-of-life policing under two successive mayors has kept them at bay, less vigilant cities have been overwhelmed. Indeed, panhandling is epidemic in many places—from cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Austin, Memphis, Orlando, and Albuquerque to smaller college towns like Berkeley. “People in New York would be shocked at what one encounters in other cities these days, where the panhandling can be very intimidating,” says Daniel Biederman, a cofounder of three business improvement districts in Manhattan, including the Grand Central Partnership, which grappled effectively with homelessness in the city’s historic train station in the early 1990s. “Panhandling has gotten especially bad in cities that have a reputation for being liberal and tolerant. They have tried to be open-minded, but now many of them see the problem as out of control.”
I’ve definitely noticed this. Not a day went by in Seattle without at least one person asking me for money. Here in New York, it happens at most once a week.
Anecdotal surveys by journalists and police, and even testimony by panhandlers themselves, suggest that begging can yield anywhere from $20 to $100 a day—though police in Coos Bay, Oregon, found that local panhandlers were taking in as much as $300 a day in a Wal-Mart parking lot. … In Memphis, a local FOX News reporter, Jason Carter, donned old clothes and hit the streets earlier this year, earning about $10 an hour. “Just the quasi-appearance of being homeless filled my cup,” Carter observed.
(via Marginal Revolution)
