I’d rather be camping in Oldsmar, 1919.
In Focus: The American West, 150 Years Ago
In the 1860s and 70s, photographer Timothy O’Sullivan created some of the best-known images in American History. After covering the U.S. Civil War, (many of his photos appear in this earlier series), O’Sullivan joined a number of expeditions organized by the federal government to help document the new frontiers in the American West. The teams were composed of soldiers, scientists, artists, and photographers, and tasked with discovering the best ways to take advantage of the region’s untapped natural resources. O’Sullivan brought an amazing eye and work ethic, composing photographs that evoked the vastness of the West. He also documented the Native American population as well as the pioneers who were already altering the landscape. Above all, O’Sullivan captured — for the first time on film — the natural beauty of the American West in a way that would later influence Ansel Adams and thousands more photographers to come.
See more. [Images: Timothy O’Sullivan/LOC]
From Love to Bingo: A beautiful ad for Getty Images
What Does Your Favorite Wes Anderson Movie Say About You?
With the advent of Wes Anderson’s latest entry into his compendium of eight—the movie Moonrise Kingdom, out in New York and Las Angeles Friday—there’s enough of a catalog to ensure that there’s one for each of us. So, what’s your favorite Wes Anderson film? You would be amazed at what your preferences say about who you are, at least according to this entirely unscientific but completely authoritative exploration:
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
You like bands that other people like, but you only like their really obscure stuff. When you describe a piece of art or something as “difficult,” you mean it as a compliment. You probably have a graduate degree in something specific or you just work at a used book store. You want to move to Portland but you just haven’t done it yet. Sometimes people call you an asshole and you respond, “All I’m saying is that it’s important to understand what the term ‘craft beer’actually means.” If you’re a straight guy (and you probably are) you have a girlfriend named Cara who is a research assistant and wants to move to France, but not Paris. When you have a kid (not with Cara), it will have, for a first name, the last name of a writer you like. (Maybe Wallace, because you love Infinite Jest.) One summer when you were a kid you spent a month with your cousins at their island house in Maine and something big happened that you never told anyone else.
These are high-speed photos of paint splashed just the right way to simulate flowers!
Photographer Jack Long diligently plans out each photo, shooting hundreds of tests. None are Photoshopped other than to “clean up” the photo.
High-Speed Photos of Paint Look Like Flowers [via Inthemess]
p.s. Check out his high speed photos of coffee!
![theatlantic:
Study: No News is Better Than Fox News
A survey by Farleigh Dickinson University asked 1,185 random people about their news consumption and also random questions about domestic and current events like whether Bashar al-Assad was still in power, the American unemployment rate, and which party holds the most seats in the House of Representatives right now. And this is what they found:
The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all.
[Image: Reuters]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4hiaviIXe1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
Study: No News is Better Than Fox News
A survey by Farleigh Dickinson University asked 1,185 random people about their news consumption and also random questions about domestic and current events like whether Bashar al-Assad was still in power, the American unemployment rate, and which party holds the most seats in the House of Representatives right now. And this is what they found:
The largest effect is that of Fox News: all else being equal, someone who watched only Fox News would be expected to answer just 1.04 domestic questions correctly — a figure which is significantly worse than if they had reported watching no media at all.
[Image: Reuters]
![theatlantic:
A Fast Food Burger Is 3 Times Larger Now Than in The 1950s
Research has shown that the bigger your plate, the likelier it is you’ll overeat. The same logic may apply to fast food, where according to a new infographic by the Centers for Disease Control, portion sizes for popular items have increased dramatically since the 1950s.
Read more. [Image: CDC]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4hig4HkOx1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
A Fast Food Burger Is 3 Times Larger Now Than in The 1950s
Research has shown that the bigger your plate, the likelier it is you’ll overeat. The same logic may apply to fast food, where according to a new infographic by the Centers for Disease Control, portion sizes for popular items have increased dramatically since the 1950s.
Read more. [Image: CDC]
![theatlantic:
What Can a Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Teach Us About Obamacare?
Ronald Coase won the Nobel Prize in Economics for showing that social costs are symmetrical. In The Problem of Social Cost, Coase invoked the example of a farmer whose crops are trampled by the neighboring rancher’s cattle. Before Coase, it would have been common to view the rancher as the culprit responsible for imposing costs on the blameless farmer. Coase pointed out that no matter which way the legal rights were allocated, one was imposing costs on the other. If the law forces the rancher to keep his cattle fenced in, the farming imposes fence-building costs on the rancher. If the law gives the rancher the right to let his cattle roam free, then the farmer bears the social cost.
Coase’s work was instrumental in establishing a new field of scholarship — the economic analysis of the law, which has been highly influential in many legal areas. In light of this, it is surprising how little role the core Coasian insight had in the Supreme Court’s recent oral argument about the Obamacare mandate. Much of the discussion seemed to take for granted that this mandate encroaches on individual liberty, depriving individuals of the “freedom” not to purchase health insurance.
But as Coase’s analysis makes clear, framing the issue in terms of individual liberty is deeply misleading. When the uninsured get sick and go to the emergency room for care they cannot afford, someone has to pay the costs. If the law gives the uninsured the right not to buy health insurance, then the costs for their emergency care are imposed on the insured, whose payments must cover the hospital’s costs. If the law instead requires the uninsured to buy health insurance, they become personally responsible for the cost of the care they receive.
In other words, the issue is not whether to have a mandate, but rather on whom the mandate should be imposed.
Read more. [Image: mrfoto/Shutterstock]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m4hmbdmCiO1qcokc4o1_500.jpg)
What Can a Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Teach Us About Obamacare?
Ronald Coase won the Nobel Prize in Economics for showing that social costs are symmetrical. In The Problem of Social Cost, Coase invoked the example of a farmer whose crops are trampled by the neighboring rancher’s cattle. Before Coase, it would have been common to view the rancher as the culprit responsible for imposing costs on the blameless farmer. Coase pointed out that no matter which way the legal rights were allocated, one was imposing costs on the other. If the law forces the rancher to keep his cattle fenced in, the farming imposes fence-building costs on the rancher. If the law gives the rancher the right to let his cattle roam free, then the farmer bears the social cost.
Coase’s work was instrumental in establishing a new field of scholarship — the economic analysis of the law, which has been highly influential in many legal areas. In light of this, it is surprising how little role the core Coasian insight had in the Supreme Court’s recent oral argument about the Obamacare mandate. Much of the discussion seemed to take for granted that this mandate encroaches on individual liberty, depriving individuals of the “freedom” not to purchase health insurance.
But as Coase’s analysis makes clear, framing the issue in terms of individual liberty is deeply misleading. When the uninsured get sick and go to the emergency room for care they cannot afford, someone has to pay the costs. If the law gives the uninsured the right not to buy health insurance, then the costs for their emergency care are imposed on the insured, whose payments must cover the hospital’s costs. If the law instead requires the uninsured to buy health insurance, they become personally responsible for the cost of the care they receive.
In other words, the issue is not whether to have a mandate, but rather on whom the mandate should be imposed.
Read more. [Image: mrfoto/Shutterstock]
8 Bits of Wisdom From Neil Gaiman on Being a Creator
This is a fantastic speech by Neil Gaiman, addressing the 2012 graduating class of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Gaiman himself never graduated from college—in fact, he never even enrolled in college—yet he earned his place in literary culture as one of the most celebrated and prolific writers working today. Here, he imparts several pieces of life wisdom on young people beginning a career in the arts.
- Say “no” to projects that take you further from rather than closer to your own creative goals, however flattering or lucrative.
- Approach your creative labor with joy, or else it becomes work.
- Embrace your fear of failure. Make peace with the impostor syndrome that comes with success. Don’t be afraid of being wrong.
- When things get tough, make good art.
Read the rest. [via Brain Pickings]
Florida gifts, 1896.
Make mine chocolate please..
