Disney Animator Illustrates Life With Two Children After His Wife Passed Away

http://www.24hviralphotos.com/disney-animator-illustrates-life-with-two-children-after-his-wife-passed-away-and-it-will-break-your-heart-21-pics/

Want to feel unique? Believe in the Reptile people.

He who believes bin Laden is still alive will have something in common with she who believes the 1% are reptiles masquerading as humans: the need to feel unique. For someone with a conspiracy mentality, what matters most is their exclusive knowledge.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE....

https://aeon.co/ideas/want-to-feel-unique-believe-in-the-reptile-people

The Craigslist Killers

Very good read, enjoy!

More than 100 men replied to an advert on Craigslist offering work on a farm. Some of them were shot dead. The killers thought no one would miss their victims but, as Hanna Rosin reports, their story reveals a surprising truth about the emotional lives of men in a time of recession and family breakdown

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/10/craigslist-killers-murder-story-family-breakdown

READ MORE ABOUT "LONELY HEARTS KILLERS" HERE...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lonely_hearts_killer

Milgram experiment

The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychological experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience.

Findings....

"Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. 

Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority."

Read More here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment 

 More in-depth article in Harper's Magazine...
 The Perils of Obedience by Stanley Milgram

A social psychologist's experiments show that most people will hurt their fellow man rather than disobey authority.

Read more here....
 http://www.laquintahs.org/ourpages/auto/2007/9/26/1190783482193/Milgram%20-%20perils%20of%20obediance.pdf

Happiness from Giving to Others May be Universal Trait, Says UBC and Harvard

 "It’s a truth universally acknowledged that giving makes you happy.  Now, researchers from the University of B.C. and Harvard University say they may have evidence to back up that claim. Whether you buy your better half a concert ticket every now and again or take a friend on a trip, the research shows spending our money on others — even if we haven’t got much to spend — makes us feel good."

READ MORE HERE...
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Happiness+from+giving+others+universal+trait+authors+from/8360310/story.html

The Truck Stop Killer

He was methodical, he rode the highways, and he preyed on teenage girls. Girls who'd run away. Girls no one would miss. In the summer of 1985, the author was such a girl. One night on I-95, she hitched a ride from a stranger and endured the most terrifying moments of her life. Now, years later, she returns to the scenes of her fugitive youth looking for clues to that terror—and the girls who lost their lives to it...

Read full article in GQ Magazine...

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201211/truck-stop-killer-gq-november-2012?printable=true 

Surviving :) The Teenage Brain

Fascinating documentary on the teenage brain...

SEE FULL DOCUMENTARY HERE...

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Shows/Shows/The+Nature+of+Things/ID/2188547727/

Three Videos to Warm the Soul V

Incredible films...

Inspirational Moments in film...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoCZFoXCbWk&feature=related

This is my winter...

https://vimeo.com/31572650

Green Day...American Idiot ...Wicked vid with a cool ending...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yi-LvnM_5M&feature=relmfu

 Also check out...

Three Videos to Warm the Soul IV

Marriage, Mcdonald's and Mexico

Three cool articles...

Doubts About Marriage Should Not Be Ignored

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/blog/bal-poh-do-not-ignore-wedding-gitters,0,6961107.story

The 10 Best McDonald's Meals You Won't Find in the US

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/10/08/10_best_mcdonalds_meals_you_wont_find_in_the_us?page=0,0

Mexico: Failed State or Economic Giant?

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/thecafe/2012/09/20129161631565644.html

Pop Is Sad and AC/DC Isn't Edgy

Science proves music is getting sadder...interesting read...

Excerpt:

In the 2004 essay “Just Send Me Someone to Love,” Brad Zellar claimed all pop songs are either about love or desire, using the Hobbesian definition that they are essentially the same thing, with desire signifying absence and love signifying fulfillment. There’s nothing cheerful about not getting what you want. I brought the essay to a college class I taught to help us talk about motivation in short stories. My students, lovely bright-eyed sophomores, were skeptical. By the end of class I had convinced them that Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” is the saddest song ever recorded. I don’t teach that class anymore. It’s too depressing.

A year later I saw Katy Perry frolic onstage with two-dozen fans to Whitney’s lonely girl anthem, and it was still sad. Katy Perry’s Candyland concerts are even more depressing than Radiohead shows; instead of shuffling through a crowd of neurotic 30-somethings all wearing the same canvas shoes, you’re surrounded by 12-year-olds under such immense social and academic pressures they’re nostalgic for being 8. 

Read more here...

http://www.salon.com/2012/08/28/science_proves_music_is_getting_sadder/

Raising Successful Children

Excerpt:

So if children are able to live with mistakes and even failing, why does it drive us crazy? So many parents have said to me, “I can’t stand to see my child unhappy.” If you can’t stand to see your child unhappy, you are in the wrong business. The small challenges that start in infancy (the first whimper that doesn’t bring you running) present the opportunity for “successful failures,” that is, failures your child can live with and grow from. To rush in too quickly, to shield them, to deprive them of those challenges is to deprive them of the tools they will need to handle the inevitable, difficult, challenging and sometimes devastating demands of life.

Read more here...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/raising-successful-children.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=FB-nytimes

Welcome Home

This is the Pulitzer Prize Winning Feature about a soldier suffering from PTSD.  Certainly, documentary photography at it's finest...

 

 Scott looks over his military service records and weeps after being told his apartment application had been turned down. The leasing manager said he couldn't allow Scott to move in because of an assault charge on his background check. Though Scott had his honorable discharge papers and his good-conduct medal, Scott said they meant nothing. 'I'm not a criminal. You would think this would be worth something. It should be. It's not, though.' (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post -Dec. 29, 2011)

 

 Scott drinks a beer outside the VFW Post in Longmont, Colo. Scott recalled his worst day in Iraq. 'We got this infantry platoon attached to us to beef up our numbers. ... There was this one guy, and I knew right away that we were going to be friends. ... The vehicle he was riding in the passenger seat hit a really big bomb that day - really big IED, and it trapped him inside the humvee, and I got to listen to and watch him scream as he burned. And I never learned his name. There was nothing I could do. ... I lost a friend that I never had.' (Craig F. Walker, The Denver Post - December 29, 2011)

 After punching a hole in his bedroom door, Scott panics in his living room. 'My PTSD comes from long exposure to combat trauma,' Scott said. 'I think it comes from the fact that I survived. That wasn't my plan. It's an honor to die for my country, but I made it home.' Scott said that being diagnosed with PTSD 'means I have nightmares every night. It means I'm hyper-vigilant -- It means I have no fuse and if I get attacked, I'm going to kill. 'I don't want to feel this way.

Scott watches an evening storm roll in outside his apartment. 'I'm just feeling guilty about the things I did. I was a brutal killer, and I rejoiced in it. I was bred to be a killer, and I did it. Now I'm trying to adapt and feel human again. But to feel human, I feel guilty. I did horrible things to people... That's why I can't eat: I feel guilty, I feel sick.' 

SEE FULL SLIDESHOW HERE...
http://www.pulitzer.org/works/2012-Feature-Photography# 

Also see more Pulitzer Prize Winning Photos here...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131084/Pulitzer-Prize-winners-2012-Picture-screaming-girl-standing-amid-Afghan-suicide-attack-carnage.html 

And lastly an exceptional documentary called "Hell and Back Again" which depicts the reality of modern war and the pain of reintegration.
http://hellandbackagain.com/ 
(It's easy to download this doc from torrentz...)

Caring for your Introvert

Inside the world of introverts....Three great articles that are definitely worth reading....

Caring for Your Introvert

 

Excerpt:

Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say "Hell is other people at breakfast." Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring.

Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone. They often seem bored by themselves, in both senses of the expression. Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially "on," we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: "I'm okay, you're okay—in small doses."

How many people are introverts? I performed exhaustive research on this question, in the form of a quick Google search. The answer: About 25 percent. Or: Just under half. Or—my favorite—"a minority in the regular population but a majority in the gifted population."

Are introverts misunderstood? Wildly. That, it appears, is our lot in life. "It is very difficult for an extrovert to understand an introvert," write the education experts Jill D. Burruss and Lisa Kaenzig. (They are also the source of the quotation in the previous paragraph.) Extroverts are easy for introverts to understand, because extroverts spend so much of their time working out who they are in voluble, and frequently inescapable, interaction with other people. They are as inscrutable as puppy dogs. But the street does not run both ways. Extroverts have little or no grasp of introversion. They assume that company, especially their own, is always welcome. They cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion. As often as I have tried to explain the matter to extroverts, I have never sensed that any of them really understood. They listen for a moment and then go back to barking and yipping.

Are introverts oppressed? I would have to say so. For one thing, extroverts are overrepresented in politics, a profession in which only the garrulous are really comfortable. Look at George W. Bush. Look at Bill Clinton. They seem to come fully to life only around other people. To think of the few introverts who did rise to the top in politics—Calvin Coolidge, Richard Nixon—is merely to drive home the point. With the possible exception of Ronald Reagan, whose fabled aloofness and privateness were probably signs of a deep introverted streak (many actors, I've read, are introverts, and many introverts, when socializing, feel like actors), introverts are not considered "naturals" in politics.

Extroverts therefore dominate public life. This is a pity. If we introverts ran the world, it would no doubt be a calmer, saner, more peaceful sort of place. 

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE...

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2003/03/caring-for-your-introvert/2696/

Also check out this article...

Confessions of an Introverted Traveler

Excerpt:

 

We introverts have a different style of travel, and I’m tired of hiding it.

Oh, I’m always happy enough when interesting people stumble into my path. It’s a lagniappe, and I’m capable of connecting with people when the opportunity arises. And when the chemistry is right, I enjoy it.

But I don’t seek people out, I am terrible at striking up conversations with strangers and I am happy exploring a strange city alone. I don’t seek out political discourse with opinionated cab drivers or boozy bonding with locals over beers into the wee hours. By the time the hours get wee, I’m usually in bed in my hotel room, appreciating local color TV. (So sue me, but I contend that television is a valid reflection of a society.)

This is not something I confess easily. I have long been shamed out of owning my introversion by the extroverts who dominate American culture. Extroversion has long been considered healthier than introversion, and introverts often try to push against our natural tendencies in order to fit in, to seem “normal” so people will stop scolding us. Extroverts are unintentional bullies, demanding that everyone join their party or be considered queer, sad or stunted.

Introversion and extroversion are inborn traits, and the difference between them is not that one is gregarious and at ease in the world and the other shy and awkward. Rather, extroverts are outwardly motivated and gain energy from interaction with the outside world while introverts are more inwardly directed and drained by interaction with others. Introverts’ thinking tends to be deep and slow, we require copious time alone, we prefer probing conversation to shallow chitchat, and our social lives are geared more towards intimate one-on-one interactions than “more the merrier” free-for-alls.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE...

http://www.worldhum.com/features/speakers-corner/confessions-of-an-introverted-traveler-20090309/

The Secret Power of Introverts

If you had to guess, what would you say investor Warren Buffet and civil rights activist Rosa Parks had in common? How about Charles Darwin, Al Gore, J.K. Rowling, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi and Google’s Larry Page? They are icons. They are leaders. And they are introverts.

Despite the corporate world’s insistence on brazen confidence–Speak up! Promote yourself! Network!—one third to half of Americans are believed to be introverts, according to Susan Cain, author of just released Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. She contends that personality shapes our lives as profoundly as gender and race, and where you fall on the introvert-extrovert spectrum is the single most important aspect of your personality.

Introverts may make up nearly half the population...

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/01/26/the-secret-power-of-introverts/

 

'The Demise of Guys': How video games and porn are ruining a generation

(CNN) -- Is the overuse of video games and pervasiveness of online porn causing the demise of guys?

Increasingly, researchers say yes, as young men become hooked on arousal, sacrificing their schoolwork and relationships in the pursuit of getting a tech-based buzz.

The consequences could be dramatic: The excessive use of video games and online porn in pursuit of the next thing is creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment.

Stories about this degeneration are rampant: In 2005, Seungseob Lee, a South Korean man, went into cardiac arrest after playing "StarCraft" for nearly 50 continuous hours. In 2009, MTV's "True Life" highlighted the story of a man named Adam whose wife kicked him out of their home -- they have four kids together -- because he couldn't stop watching porn.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/23/health/living-well/demise-of-guys/index.html

Aokigahara Suicide Forest

 

Definitely one of the most original documentaries I've seen...

The Aokigahara Forest is the most popular site for suicides in Japan. After the novel Kuroi Jukai was published, in which a young lover commits suicide in the forest, people started taking their own lives there at a rate of 50 to 100 deaths a year. 

The site holds so many bodies that the Yakuza pays homeless people to sneak into the forest and rob the corpses. The authorities sweep for bodies only on an annual basis, as the forest sits at the base of Mt. Fuji and is too dense to patrol more frequently. 

Watch full documentary here...

http://www.vice.com/en_ca/vice-news/aokigahara-suicide-forest-v3

Best of Kultura 2011-The Articles

2011 Articles of Note


1.  The Little Trick

By Anton Chekov

A beautiful short story by the celebrated Russian writer.
http://ajarnmike.blogspot.com/2011/03/little-trick.html

2.  A Grief Like No Other

By Eric Schlosser

Excerpt:

Patty also found consolation at her son's grave. During the first year after the murder she stopped by the cemetery two or three times a day. Usually she'd visit the grave for fifteen minutes or so. At other times, including his birthday, she would sit there all day. His birthday was in February, when the weather was harsh and cold. One thing she could not bear was the thought of snow covering Tim's body. Whenever it snowed, she had to visit the cemetery and clear off his grave. One day after a snowstorm she arrived and found that someone who knew how she felt had already removed the snow from Tim's grave."
 http://ajarnmike.blogspot.com/2011/07/grief-like-no-other.html


3.  Why We Travel 

by Paul Theroux

“Don’t go there,” the know-it-all, stay-at-home finger wagger says of many a distant place. I have heard it my whole traveling life, and in almost every case it was bad advice. In my experience these maligned countries are often the most fulfilling. I am not saying they are fun. For undiluted jollification you bake in the sun at Waikiki with a mai tai in your fist, or eat lotuses on the Côte d’Azur. As for the recognition of hard travel as rewarding, the feeling is mainly retrospective, since it is only in looking back that we see how we have been enriched. At the time, of course, the experience of being a bystander to sudden political or social change can be alarming.
http://ajarnmike.blogspot.com/2011/04/argument-for-travel-during-turbulent.html



4.  Living in the Moment Really Does Make You Happier 

By Ian Sample

They found that people were happiest when having sex, exercising or in conversation, and least happy when working, resting or using a home computer. And although subjects' minds were wandering nearly half of the time, this consistently made them less happy.
The team conclude that reminiscing, thinking ahead or daydreaming tends to make people more miserable, even when they are thinking about something pleasant.
 http://ajarnmike.blogspot.com/2011/08/living-in-moment-really-does-make.html 



5.  ...the last sentence

The last words of some pretty cool people.
http://ajarnmike.blogspot.com/2011/08/famous-last-words.html


6.  Dummy Land

Writer Avi Steinberg visits a ventriloquist convention...great article.

http://ajarnmike.blogspot.com/2011/07/dummy-land.html


7.  The Oatmeal

Hilarious comics with a little social commentary added...  By Mathew Inmann
http://ajarnmike.blogspot.com/2011/07/oatmeal.html  

Famous Failures

Excerpt:
Whenever we attempt to do something and fail, we end up doing something else or producing something else. You have not failed; you have produced some other result. The two most important questions to ask are: "What have I learned?" and "What have I done?"
Failure is only a word that human beings use to judge a given situation. Instead of fearing failure, we should learn that failures, mistakes and errors are the way we learn and the way we grow. Many of the world's greatest successes have learned how to fail their way to success. Some of the more famous are:

• Michael Jordan: Most people wouldn't believe that a man often lauded as the best basketball player of all time was actually cut from his high school basketball team. Luckily, Jordan didn't let this setback stop him from playing the game and he has stated, "I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

• Stephen King: The first book by this author, the iconic thriller Carrie, received 30 rejections, finally causing King to give up and throw it in the trash. His wife fished it out and encouraged him to resubmit it, and the rest is history, with King now having hundreds of books published and the distinction of being one of the best-selling authors of all time.

Read more here:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creative-thinkering/201111/famous-failures

Is Cheating the Secret to a Happy Marriage?

Excerpt:

 Research shows that 65 percent of women—and a whopping 80 percent of men—say they’d cheat if they knew they could avoid being caught. With stats like these, its no surprise that cultural critics have declared marriage dead.

 But Krasnow quickly learned that there are plenty of men and women in long-term marriages that are working just fine—albeit through creative methods. And, hell, with men and women living longer than ever—don’t we need all the advice we can get? “Marriage is hard,” Krasnow says. “My goal, truly, is to liberate readers to understand that there’s no gold standard for it. Every woman should feel free to create her own marriage.”

“To expect one person, man or woman, to make you happy for the rest of your life is a ticket to divorce,” says Krasnow, a professor at American University. “The happiest women I interviewed have a sense of purpose and passion outside of marriage.” For some, that means career or other interests. But for at least a handful of those willing to admit it, it means that and more.


Read More here...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/11/the-secret-lives-of-wives-is-cheating-the-secret-to-a-happy-marriage.html

Confessions of a Serial Killer: Jeffrey Dahmer

Very chilling interview, but fascinating at the same time...

Watch Full Documentary here...

http://documentaryheaven.com/confessions-of-a-serial-killer-jeffrey-dahmer/

A Victim Almost Escapes

Konerak was only fourteen and he was running for his life. This was his only chance to escape from the horrible-smelling apartment where the creepy blond guy had slipped him some kind of powerful drug. It seemed that luck was with him that he started to come around just as the blond man had left the apartment.
It took all the strength he had to get up and get to the door. He was so disoriented and panicked that it made no difference that he was naked. This was his only chance to survive. He was working strictly on instinct. Just get out of there and run away.

It was just before 2 A.M. and Sandra Smith called 911 to report the boy running around "butt naked." She didn't know who he was, but she knew he was injured and terrified.
The paramedics got there first and put a blanket around the naked, dazed boy. Two police officers arrived soon after and tried to understand what was going on with this young man of Asian descent.
Sandra Smith, 18, and her cousin Nicole Childress, also 18, were standing near the boy when the Milwaukee city police arrived. The tall blond man was also standing near the boy. The conversation became heated between the girls, the blond man and the police.

The tall blond man told the police the Konerak was his 19-year-old lover who had been drinking too much. Konerak, who was drugged and incoherent, wasn't able to contradict the smooth-talking blond man. Dahmer gave the police a picture ID.

The two young women tried to intervene. They had seen the terrified boy trying to resist the blond man before the police arrived. They were angry and upset. The police were ignoring them and listening to the white man instead.

Just to be on the safe side, the two officers went with the boy and the tall blond man to his apartment. The apartment smelled bad, but it was very neat. Konerak's clothing was folded and placed on the sofa. There were a couple of photographs of Konerak in black bikini briefs.

Konerak sat quietly on the sofa unable to talk intelligently. It's not even clear that he understood the calm explanation the blond man was giving the police. The blond man was apologizing that his lover had caused a disturbance and promised it wouldn't happen again.
The police believed the blond man. They had no reason not to — he was well-spoken, intelligent and very calm. The Asian was apparently drunk and incoherent. The officers, not wanting to get in the middle of a domestic argument between homosexual lovers, left the apartment with Konerak still sitting quietly on the sofa.

Read more here...
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/notorious/dahmer/index.html

The Sunny Side of Smut

It used to be tough to get porn. Renting an X-rated movie required sneaking into a roped-off room in the back of a video store, and eyeing a centerfold meant facing down a store clerk to buy a pornographic magazine. Now pornography is just one Google search away, and much of it is free. Age restrictions have become meaningless, too, with the advent of social media—one teenager in five has sent or posted naked pictures of themselves online, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.
With access to pornography easier than ever before, politicians and scientists alike have renewed their interest in deciphering its psychological effects. Certainly pornography addiction or overconsumption seems to cause relationship problems [see “Sex in Bits and Bytes,” by Hal Arkowitz and Scott O. Lilienfeld; Scientific American Mind, July/August 2010]. But what about the more casual exposure typical of most porn users?

Read More Here...

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-sunny-side-of-smut