Contrary to the trite assertion made every year by people who don’t know how to appreciate football, it’s not really true that the commercials are the best thing about the Super Bowl (at least not always). Sure, it seems that way because the television viewer is seeing commercials than actual game play (in an average game, the ratio of commercials to playing time is seven to one). The reality, however, is that most of the commercials aren’t all that memorable.... Read more
Football fans like me (How ’bout them Cowboys?) like to think the sport is more action-packed than more boring games, like golf or soccer. But research shows that minute-for-minute a Samuel Beckett play has more action than an NFL game: According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes. In other words, if... Read more
And on the eighth day, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, “I need a caretaker.” So God made a farmer. (Via: Reformissionary) Read more
A charming pep talk from Kid President. Read more
All of the people in this video are amazing. And about 90% of them are also amazingly reckless and willing to take unnecessary risks in order to perform incredible feats. God bless these danger-loving idiots. Related: The Improbable is the New Normal Read more
From an interview with psychologist Robert Epstein, author of The Case Against Adolescence: Teens in America are in touch with their peers on average 65 hours a week, compared to about four hours a week in preindustrial cultures. In this country, teens learn virtually everything they know from other teens, who are in turn highly influenced by certain aggressive industries. This makes no sense. Teens should be learning from the people they are about to become. When young people exit... Read more
Imagine how much time would be saved if we were take all of the silent letters out of the words we write. Read more
Brad Leithauser on why we should memorize text, especially poems: My late colleague Joseph Brodsky, who died in 1996, used to appall his students by requiring them to memorize something like a thousand lines each semester. He felt he was preparing them for the future; they might need such verses later in life. His own biography provided a stirring example of the virtues of mental husbandry. He’d been grateful for every scrap of poetry he had in his head during... Read more
If you pit an immovable object against an unstoppable force, which Wins?The answer is not only surprising, but surprisingly satisfying. Read more
Cars come in nearly any color we can imagine. So why do we buy them in white? In general, when color theorists talk about white, they talk about religion. White is a very important color for Christians — liturgically speaking, it’s the color of joy and celebration; in the Catholic Church, it’s the color worn by the pope. … It’s not unreasonable to expect that, however subtly, churchgoers would be influenced by their belief to think favorably of white and... Read more
Joe Carter
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