They grow up so quickly. (h/t, Tim) // Swedish ladies gymnastics, 1905. // At last, black ice cream. // Sweaty vest and power loader not included. // London’s ganglands. // Thomas Sowell on the greed fallacy. // Battle of the sexes. (h/t, Obo) // Iceberg Alley. // His name was Bill Hitler. // 200-watt laser bazooka brings instant death to cardboard and balloons. // Cargo cult. // One-bean cup of coffee. // On earworms and chewing gum. // Tiny shrimp tempura. // Irony. // Robot game-play is an acquired taste. // Robot knife game. // An interview with a serial killer. (h/t, Jordan Peterson) // Recognition. // Morricone and Theremin. // Anamorphic sculptures. // If you fix the stars in place. // Artificial uterus. // Rutland State Fair, 1941. // And finally, the Great Emu War of 1932.

Because I know you heathens are all starved of high culture, here are edited highlights of Shannon Cochrane and Márcio Carvalho performing their colossal work Untitled at the 2013 Miami Performance International Festival. For those who may be confounded by the profundity of the piece, a handy walk-through guide is available here. Said guide points out that the performance will encourage among onlookers “a deeper level of critical thought.” Of the many ruminations that will doubtless be inspired is the following:

After seeing someone wrap their head in meat twice, does it still hold the same weight as it did the first time?

The guide notes, rather earnestly, that the first attempt, by Mr Carvalho – to envelop his head in bread, string, and assorted meat products – prompted more amusement from the tiny audience than the subsequent repetition of it by Ms Cochrane. This is presented as an invitation to “a fundamental shift in paradigm” and some allegedly profound insight into gender politics. Or, how “different actions are read on different bodies.” Our artistic deep thinkers are seemingly unaware of the concepts of novelty and diminishing returns.

“This usage of time” is, we’re told, “an interesting one.” So brace yourselves.

Yes, I know. You’ve been rendered giddy by those shifting paradigms.

Dicentra thinks you should see this. And frankly, you deserve no less.

You see, Ms Rachel Bloom is dropping knowledge. With her sex junk.

Ordinary people are perfectly comfortable with the idea that some people are smarter than others. They’re perfectly comfortable [with the idea] that what we call smart gets you kinds of jobs that you can’t get otherwise, all that kind of stuff. It’s the elites who are under the impression that “Oh, IQ tests only measure what IQ tests measure, and nobody is really able to define intelligence,” and this and that, “it’s culturally biased,” and on and on. And all of these things are the equivalent of saying the Earth is flat. These are not opinions that you can hold in contest with the scientific literature.

Sam Harris has a long and wide-ranging discussion with Charles Murray, spanning the taboos of IQ, social stratification, the poisonous effects of identity politics, the pros and cons of a universal basic income, and how Donald Trump became a weapon against a disdainful establishment.

Dr Murray’s adventures among the campus Mao-lings have been noted here previously. 

Portrait of a mindset in a single Tweeted selfie: