Their stats mean nothing for us

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“The handicap principle

suggests that sexual selection could even have favored a masochistic taste for memorable discomfort, since the ability to survive hardship reveals fitness. Even in the carnage of mechanized warfare or the intellectual bloodbath of an academic job interview, one can always think, “This will make a hell of a story someday.”

...

The main goal of “The Mating Mind” is to explain things like art, music, humor and moral codes from an evolutionary standpoint. None of these traits are explainable in the context of Darwinian Natural Selection. I’ve heard numerous men state that the only reason they go out on stage, write a song, or build a company is to get laid. It was really interesting to see a scientific theory elaborating on this concept in less flippant terms.

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Versus

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The rain pours down

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I recall the first time you caught me dining alone

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Because there is a beauty that cannot be photographed

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Disrupt & Soom T - Ode 2 A Carrot

Best of 2011?

I am waking up in my bed

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I pity those

who dream the probable, the reasonable and the accessible more than those who fantasize about the extraordinary and remote. Those who have grandiose dreams are either lunatics who believe in what they dream and are happy, or they’re mere daydreamers whose reveries are like the soul’s music, lulling them and meaning nothing. But those who dream the possible will, very possibly, suffer real disillusion. I can’t be too disappointed over not having become a Roman emperor, but I can sorely regret never once having spoken to the seamstress who at the street corner turns right at about nine o’clock every morning.

Fernando Pessoa

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Like a rat I want to be beautiful

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Des Ark - Don't Rock the Boat, Sink the Fucker

However, I strongly

disagree with the idea that a woman should try to redesign the inside of a man’s head. If you want a romance with someone who thinks just like you, date other women. Men are different from us. Really. Their view of the world is neither better or worse than ours, it just – is. I myself think men are sort of like the Federal government. They do certain important jobs really well, but it’s best to keep their official duties simply defined. As far as I am concerned, the duties of the men in my life are: lift heavy things, defend me from hostile insects and rodents, tell me that I’m beautiful, and make with the sexy.
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Like Dow Jones or NASDAQ

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Esteban Cortázar

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Drink cider from cans

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I was a wreck back then

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Because you're not

going to confront her about this affair or any other affair that you might uncover between now and your father's death and you're not going to tell your mom you snooped and you and your brother are going to go right on defending your mother to your father and you're going to show a little respect—a little retroactive respect—for your mother's privacy by pretending that you don't know what you do know.
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I am mad at it

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Oh how I dreamed to finally say such things then only to pretend

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Asobi Seksu - Fluorescence

More reason 2011 is off to a fantastic start

The Do - Both Ways Open Jaws

2011 off to a fantastic start

First, go to

Canada, where the Human Library Project has debuted at the Toronto Public Library. The idea is that you can head to your local branch to have a conversation with someone from a different background than yourself (still under the ordinance of "Shhhhh," one presumes). Beautiful Canada, land of my forebears. But as Yonge Street Media writes, the "human library" concept actually originated in Europe, of course—Copenhagen, to be precise—about ten years ago.
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Panda suit

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This afternoon, at

about three PM, I took my first real break from #MooreandMe that didn’t involve sleeping. You may or may not know this, but I have been going, on Twitter and Tiger Beatdown and Tumblr and in e-mail and sometimes for Salon, basically without stopping or doing literally anything else, like: skipping most meals and deciding hummus and chips constitute “meals,” like: not taking the time off to shower, since this thing started. I would have kept going today, too, when I went out with my boyfriend to a cheap brunch place not far away from our apartment — I brought my phone so that I could keep checking the #MooreandMe Twitter feed, and tweeting, and re-tweeting — but the phone had apparently died, and I didn’t want to be rude and demand that my boyfriend let me use his iPhone. So there I was, for the first time in four days, not directly involved in the #MooreandMe protest.
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Emily Wells

Black Cat Saturday night <3

Look at the shapes you made while you were sleeping

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But the movie kept moving as planned

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Rolling Blackouts

The Youth Die Young

Under Skies

Disko

You Are Here

What is wrong

is the message presented to women that they must embody one body type to be considered beautiful. That's a lie. It's a powerful lie though, a coersive one that is oppressive for an untold number of women. It's reprehensible that the fashion industry can claim to 'celebrate womanly bodies' (see the recent chorus of praise for curves on the A/W catwalks, notably at Louis Vuitton) and then quietly continue to present, uncritiqued, extreme thinness in their editorials.
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Elana

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Never mistake kindness for weakness

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I'll break your heart

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Aubade

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It only takes

a girl a few seconds to realize what someone else may want from her sexually. It often takes her much longer to figure out what she really wants, to discern the pleasure she gets from bringing pleasure to another from the pleasure she wants for herself. And once she’s figured that out, it’s vital to work to create a culture where she can articulate that want without shame. That’s part and parcel of what it means to stand up for sexuality — and stand against sexualization.
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YES.

Tribute to Alexander McQueen

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One of the

problems with sexual assault cases - one of the reasons so few survivors ever press charges, and one of the reasons so few cases are prosecuted to conviction - is that no one ever really knows what happened. It’s always one person’s word against another’s, and whose word we’re inclined to believe is always wrapped up in identity, politics and power relations.

In the Assange case, what’s truly suspicious is not that he has been accused of rape, but that the Swedish government has been so eager to arrest and prosecute him for it. I don’t know much about Swedish law or politics, but as far as I’m aware, that kind of stuff doesn’t often happen, and it suggests that the arrest is far more about WikiLeaks than it is about anything he may or may not have done to the women who accused him.

Protest the bizarre and all too convenient terms of his arrest and extradition, absolutely. But don’t turn it into an attack on the alleged victims. Women who report sexual assault get more than enough of that as it is.

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Dion Lee

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Passive Me, Agressive You

Baffled and Beat

Dark Light

You made a promise

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KronKron

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Get jobs in offices

The Good Natured
Sunday Girl
Jessie J

Hold up the bathroom so that you have to wait

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But when you

get right down to it the main reason I teach about kink, the main reason I show kinky pictures, is to break down students’ walls. I totally have an agenda; I totally want them to let go of their judgments of other people, relax into an infinitely diverse sexual world, and expand their sexual potential, even just a little bit, because they know that in fact there aren’t any rules about what’s okay and what isn’t, apart from consent.
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Best of 2010 - Long List

!!! - Strange Weather, Isn't It?
2am Club - What Did You Think Was Going To Happen?
3Oh3 - Streets of Gold
Aaron - Birds in the Storm
Abbie Gale - No Inspiration
Agent Ribbons - On Time Travel and Romance
Alina Orlova - Mutabor
Alphabeat - The Beat Is
Amaya Lauricirca - Early Summer
Ambra Red - Electronic Creations For Special People
Amy Cook - Let the Light In
As In Rebekkamaria - Sister Sortie
Atomica Project - The Non Affair
Ayumi Hamasaki - Rock'n'Roll Circus
Azure Ray - Drawing Down the Moon
Balthazar - Applause
Bee's Garden - Hunt the Sleeper
Bellas Artes - Days Ahead
Beth Thornley - Wash U Clean
Betty and the Werewolves - Tea Time Favourites
Bicycle Voice - Tis the Ghost of Martinellis
Bim - Scatterheart
Blair - Die Young
Boy and the Choir - And Night Arrives In One Gigantic Step
Broken Little Sister - Memories, Violet & Demons
Bunny Lake - The Beautiful Fall
Cassette Kids - Nothing On TV
CEO - White Magic
Charles Schillings - Like A Radio
Cheese People - S/T
Chiddy Bang - The Preview
Coco Rosie - Grey Oceans
Color Theory - The Sound
Count and Sinden - Mega Mega Mega
Crookers - Tons of Friends
Crystal Fighters - Star of Love
Danger Radio - Nothing's Gonna Hold Us Down
Dawn Kinnard - Wrong Side of the Dream
Dirty Elegance - The Hero Who Fell From Her Pedestal
Dollyrots - A Little Messed Up
Drivan - Disko
Eat More Cake - Climb the Ladder, Live the Dream
Electrocute - Double Diamond
Elika - Snuggle Bunnies
Elizabeth & The Catapult - The Other Side of Zero
Elk City - House of Tongues
Ellery - This Isn’t Over Yet
Ellie Goulding - Bright Lights
Evolett - For Your Consideration
Faded Paper Figures - New Medium
Field Mouse - You Are Here
Fire Santa Rosa Fire - Sea Priest
Fight Like Apes - The Body of Christ and the Legs of Tina Turner
Flobots- Survival Story
Florrie - Introduction
Gamine - You Can Cry
Geydon Square - The Kardashev Scale
Gogol Bordello - Transcontinental Hustle
Gold Motel - Summer House
Golden Filter - Voluspa
Goldfrapp - Head First
Goose - Synrise
Gotan Project - Tango 3.0
Graciellita - Senseless
Gregory and the Hawk - Leche
Halcali - Tokyo Groove
Hannah Georgas - This Is Good
Hark the Herons - Under Skies
Hole - Nobody's Daughter
The Hoosiers - The Illusion of Safety
How To Dress Well - Love Remains
I Blame Coco - The Constant
Ida Maria - Katla
In This Moment - A Star-Crossed Wasteland
Ina Ich - S/T
The Indelicates - Songs For Swinging Lovers
Input Dope Fiction - Lessons Learned
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Jen Wood - Finds You In Love
Jimmy Eat World - Invented
Karin Strom - Fantomhalvan
Kate Nash - My Best Friend Is You
Katel - Decorum
Katie Goes To Tokyo - My Naked Heart
Kelis - Flesh Tone
Killola - Let's Get Associated
Kylie Minogue - Aphrodite
L'Altra - Telepathic
Land of Talk - Cloak and Cipher
The Like - Release Me
The Limousines - Get Sharp
Lone Lady - Nerve Up
Los Campesinos! - Romance Is Boring
Lovers - Dark Light
Lucky - A Coming of Age
Lucy Schwartz - Life In Letters
Lucy Swann - La Petite Mort
Mad Caddies - Consentual Selections
Madita - Pacemaker
Mad Rad - The Youth Die Young
Marina and the Diamonds - The Family Jewels
Marnie Stern - S/T
Maylee Todd - Choose Your Own Adventure
Me Talk Pretty - We Are Strangers
Meadow Island - S/T
Meg & Dia - It's Always Stormy in Tillamook
Melee - The Masquerade
Melissa Auf - Out of Our Minds
MIA - Maya
Milkymee - To All the Ladies In the Place With Style and Grace
Miss White - Miss White and the Drunken Piano
Momus - Hypnoprism
Moremoney - Tricky
Mphazes - Good Gracious
Mumford and Sons - Sigh No More
The Naked and Famous - Passive Me, Aggressive You
Nicki Minaj - Pink Friday
Ninca Leece - There Is No One Else When I Lay Down and Dream
Northern Lite - Letters and Signs Part Two
Obi Best - Capades
Otouto - Pip
Our Broken Garden - Golden Sea
The Pipettes - Earth vs The Pipettes
Power Und Beauty - The Gnome
Pretty Reckless - Light Me Up
Pure Reason Revolution - Hammer and Anvil
Reni Lane - Ready
Rio - Shine On
Robyn - Body Talk
Rufio - Anybody Out There
Saycet - Through the Window
School of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire
Scout Niblett - The Calcination of Scout Niblett
Sequence Theory Project - Toyland
Sexy Sushi - Cyril
Shrag - Life! Death! Prizes!
Sia - We Are Born
Sleigh Bells - Treats
Solange la Frange - S/T
SolarSolar - Secrets and Orchids
Soldier Thread - In Spades
Sorry Boys - Hard Working Classes
The Spill Canvas - Formalities
St. Lola In the Fields - High Atop the Houses and the Towns
The Spring Standards - Would Things Be Different
Stars- The Five Ghosts
Static of the Gods - Knowledge Machine
Stealing Sheep - What If the Lights Went Out?
Steget - Förändrar Allt
Steso Songs - Now It's Dark
The Streets - Computers and Blues
Sweet Coffee - Face To Face
Tex Taiwan - Damaged Hearts
Thrushes - Night Falls
Tricky - Mixed Race
Tying Tiffany - Peoples Temple
Uffie - Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans
Versaemerge - Fixed At Zero
Warpaint - The Fool
Washington - I Believe You Liar
The Weepies - Be My Thrill
Wind Up - You Are A Beautiful Thing
Yelawolf - Trunk Muzik
Yes Alexander - Like Lions
Young Heretics - We Are The Lost Loves
Young the Giant - S/T

La Petite Mort

Lights/Bright Lights

Let Freedom Reign

No Inspiration

Library Bath

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What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?

“I can’t prove it more than anecdotally, but I believe evolution has purpose and direction. It appears obvious, yet absolutely unconfirmable, that matter is groping towards complexity. While the laws of nature—and time itself—require objects and life forms attain durability and sustainability for survival, it seems to me more a means to an end than an end in itself.

“Theology goes a long way towards imbuing substance and processes with meaning—describing life as “matter reaching towards divinity,” or as the process through which divinity calls matter back up into itself—but theologians repeatedly make the mistake of ascribing this sense of purpose to history rather than the future. This is only natural, since the narrative structures we use to understand our world tend to have beginnings, middles, and ends. In order to experience the pay-off at the end of the story, we need to see it as somehow built-in to the original intention of events.

“It’s also hard for people to contend with the great probability that we are simply over-advanced fungi and bacteria, hurling through a galaxy in cold and meaningless space. Our existence may be unintentional, meaningless and purposeless; but that doesn’t preclude meaning or purpose from emerging as a result of our interaction and collaboration. Meaning may not be a precondition for humanity, but rather a byproduct of it.

“That’s why it’s so important to recognize that evolution, at its best, is a team sport. As Darwin’s later, lesser-known, but more important works contended, survival of the fittest is not a law applied to individuals, but to groups. Just as it is now postulated that mosquitoes cause their victims to itch and sweat nervously so that other mosquitoes can more easily find the target, most great leaps forward in human evolution—from the formation of clans to the building of cities—are feats of collaborative effort. Better rates of survival are as much a happy side effect of good collaboration as their purpose.

“If we could stop relating to meaning and purpose as artifacts of some divine creative act, and see them instead as the yield of our own creative future, they become goals, intentions, and processes very much in reach—rather than the shadows of childlike, superstitious mythology.

“The proof is impossible, since it is an unfolding one. Like reaching a horizon, arrival merely necessitates more travel.”

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