Now entering Bat Country
28-Feb-10
via i.imgur.com
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
Touching is the most intense channel of nonverbal communication and the one most people are reluctant to discuss. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, giving and receiving love and affection is a foundation element. It is like the sun in the midst of the solar system–everything else revolves around it. Touch is one manifestation of the love and consideration that all people need in order to survive. Love and touch are indivisible (Key, 1975; Montagu, 1971; Montagu & Matson, 1979). Throughout people’s lives, “touch is no short-lived event, finished when a hand is removed from the person, but rather is perceived as part of one’s history, an event of real magnitude, effecting some permanent change” (Henley, 1973, p. 96).If touch is so important, why is it so relatively rare in the United States? According to anthropologists, the United States is a non-tactile society. In fact, compared with cultures around the world, the mainstream U.S. citizen seems to be “touchy” about touching. French parents touch their children three times more often than do U.S. parents. Men in the Middle East, Korea, China, and Indochina walk arm-and-arm or hold hands without any homosexual undertones. Jewish men are very tactile; they often embrace and kiss. Puerto Rican couples might touch approximately 180 times in an hour; French pairs touch 110 times; couples in Florida touch twice; and couples in London don’t touch at all (Axtell, 1991; Colt, 1997; Jourard, 1983; Montagu & Matson, 1979).
via goliath.ecnext.com
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
When we’re hungry, it’s simple — we eat. When we’re thirsty, we drink. But what about when you just want to and need to be touched? There are no touch cafés. Touch doesn’t come as a gift with purchase at the Lancôme counter. And if you’re not in a romantic relationship, how do you fill up your touch tank to full?
There are often not enough outlets for affection in platonic relationships. Friends provide emotional support, memorable nights out, advice and adventures, but few friendships are so close that it’s comfortable and acceptable for you two to, say, snuggle on the couch together, or hold each other in a longer-than-usual embrace — one long enough to communicate sincerity but short enough not to be awkward. The line becomes especially blurred if you’re of compatible sexual orientations, because, oh my god, then it must mean you like each other.
via life.bitchbuzz.com
Via David Weekly.
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
The evidence that such messages can lead to clear, almost immediate changes in how people think and behave is accumulating fast. Students who received a supportive touch on the back or arm from a teacher were nearly twice as likely to volunteer in class as those who did not, studies have found. A sympathetic touch from a doctor leaves people with the impression that the visit lasted twice as long, compared with estimates from people who were untouched. Research by Tiffany Field of the Touch Research Institute in Miami has found that a massage from a loved one can not only ease pain but also soothe depression and strengthen a relationship.
In a series of experiments led by Matthew Hertenstein, a psychologist at DePauw University in Indiana, volunteers tried to communicate a list of emotions by touching a blindfolded stranger. The participants were able to communicate eight distinct emotions, from gratitude to disgust to love, some with about 70 percent accuracy.
via nytimes.com
Via Irina Almgren
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Llamas!
24-Feb-10
via animalsneedkisses.files.wordpress.com
Posted via web from crasch’s posterous
The links in Google’s search results are now redirects through Google. Read more about it consumingexperience. In addition to allowing Google to individually track which links you click, this breaks the “right-click copy” function for the link. This is highly annoying.
Posted via email from crasch’s posterous
My friend Robin recently moved here from Oregon. She was studying to become a Buddhist monk at the Great Vow monastery in Clatskanie, but decided that monastery life wasn’t for her. So she’s now looking for work. Her background is in mental health (she has a Master’s in Counseling, and has worked for several mental health service providers in Oregon). She would also like to work in human resources, since she believes that her skills at evaluating and counseling her clients would translate well to evaluating and counseling employees. Here’s her LinkedIn profile:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/robinelizabethgill
1. If you are an HR person, have worked in HR, or are married to someone in HR can she pick your brain about it?
2. If you know of a job that you think might be suitable, would you pass it along?
3. She’s also open to short-term/temporary work such as admin assistant, pet care, etcs. Robin is smart, conscientious, hardworking, and ethical. I highly recommend her.
Posted via email from crasch’s posterous
riot rite right clit clip click -
22-Feb-10
via riotclitshave.livejournal.com
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Bloom Box: What is it and how does it work? / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com
22-Feb-10
So what is Bloom Box?
It’s a collection of fuel cells – skinny batteries – that use oxygen and fuel to create electricity with no emissions.
Fuel cells are the building blocks of the Bloom Box. They’re made of sand that is baked into diskette-sized ceramic squares and painted with green and black ink. Each fuel cell has the potential to power one light bulb. The fuel cells are stacked into brick-sized towers sandwiched with metal alloy plates.
The fuel cell stacks are housed in a refrigerator-sized unit – the Bloom Box. Oxygen is drawn into one side of the unit, and fuel (fossil-fuel, bio-fuel, or even solar power can be used) is fed into the other side. The two combine within the cell and produce a chemical reaction that creates energy with no burning, no combustion, and no power lines.
About 64 stacks of fuel cells could power a small business like a Starbucks franchise, according to Sridhar’s 60 Minutes interview.
Working with an investment of around $400 million, aerospace engineer K.R. Sridhar spent close to a decade inventing the Bloom Box. It grew, he explained to 60 Minutes, from a device he originally invented to produce oxygen on Mars. When NASA scrapped the Mars mission, Sridhar reversed his Mars machine, pumping oxygen in, instead of making oxygen, he said.
Sridhar already has some 20 well-known customers, including Google, FedEx, Walmart, Staples, and Ebay. The corporate boxes cost about $700,000 to $800,000.
via csmonitor.com
The lack of details is pinging my crank meter, but they have some smart backers, so I’m withholding judgment until they debut their full website.
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“The Life Nomadic”, March 2, HackerDojo
20-Feb-10
via technomad.eventbrite.com
“Have you ever dreamed of traveling the world? Do you ever feel burdened by the stuff in your life? Does the call of the gypsy appeal to you? The come to the Technomad social, a gathering of people who either currently live or want to live as nomads/travelers/gypsies. Tynan, author of “Life Nomadic” , will be speaking about his travels around the world, and his current experiences living in an RV in San Francisco . There will be a Q&A, followed by a tour of his RV and his gear. There will be some light snacks. Attendees are encouraged to bring their favorite backpacking/on the road dish.”
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