Friday Linkdump wants to be more like David Bowie

[bodlon]

I like David Bowie. I like his music, I like his visual presence, I like watching Labyrinth from time to time, even though it earworms me terribly for about a week after.

So really, it only follows that I should enjoy this slideshow of David Bowie doing unlikely things, wearing odd costumes, etc. I've seen several of them before, but random collections of Bowie on the tides of the Internet is always a pleasant encounter.

Just be warned if you're thinking of clicking that link at work. Sometimes, David Bowie urinates into toasters. If you were David Bowie, you'd know that's just part of the job.

And now, links:

- Why fiction is good for you
Does reading fiction boost empathy and improve our ability to read other people's moods? It's possible, according to researchers. Awkwardly, it may also convince us that the world is just when it isn't. Awkward.

- Amber Waves of Green
A very GQ look at income inequality in the United States. Interesting stuff, though I do think it fails in terms of really nailing what proportion of US residents fall into each income category. That's at least as significant as the disparity between our richest and poorest.

- Fossil poo suggests possible pre-Clovis culture inhabitants in the Americas.
I confess, half the reason I link to this is the fact that The Register actually used the words "fossil poo." The other half is that technology and archaeology are awesome.

This post has been mirrored from Christian A. Young's Dimlight Archive. To see it in its original format, visit dimlightarchive.com

Comments

[pocketmouse]

Fiction wants me to think that the perfect partner(s) and awesome friends who will do what is best for me and drag me into wacky adventures are just a probably work-related amusing happenstance away.

[bodlon]

Man, if only. Though I do make a point of not dating coworkers. I blame the awful UK ex, and how he was technically my boss when I was a consultant.

Relatedly, I was actually talking with my therapist today about how weird my current sort of watchfulness in terms of possible partners feels. I didn't get the boy training in adolescence, and every so often I'm like 'What the fuck am I doing? What the shit do these buttons do?"

People are scary.

[pocketmouse]

Auuuuugh, I missed that part of that story. Auuuuugh.

I know some people who are married and work together, and it works, and I've also heard horror stories and been given specific advice not to ever date a coworker. So sometimes it must work out okay, but I'd rather not risk it (and doesn't that sentence just sum up me and relationships as a whole). But there are a lot of awesome people in my line of work and not a lot of opportunity to meet them elsewhere.

People are harrrrrd.

[bodlon]

It's one of those stories that only gets more ridiculous and terrible the more you know about it.

And this is me trying desperately not to turn your last line into an innuendo.

Just so you know.

[pocketmouse]

I was thinking that even as I typed it. But it's, y'know, true.

[bodlon]

Indeed. Why can they not come with a manual? Or speak plainly?

[pocketmouse]

I always wished that was a class in high school - social interaction 101.

[bodlon]

Yeah, I'm not sure that would have helped me much. If nothing else, they'd have put me in with the wrong group(s).

Awkward fumbling powers: activate!

[pocketmouse]

Yeah, that's true. I mostly wanted it for stuff like 'how to interact with people at all.' I still don't know when people are hitting on me. And I don't know if I don't know because they never have so I haven't seen it, or if I'm just really oblivious. So I'm recursively bad at this.

Awkward fumbling: probably better than awkward groping?