The Physiology Of Foie: Why Foie Gras Is Not Unethical. -
Ducks, on the other hand, have completely independent tracheas and esophagi. Their esophagus goes straight from the mouth to the crop, while the trachea runs from the lungs and out the end of the tongue. That’s right: Ducks breathe through their tongues. The cartilage that surrounds their trachea (called the tracheal ring) is also a complete circle, as opposed to ours, which is C-shaped, making their trachea much sturdier and less prone to collapse. What this means is that you can place a feeding tube in a ducks throat, and it can sit there indefinitely, neither gagging, nor suffocating.
They’re a rare combined affront to both fashion and function. It’s an ugly way to ensure that you can’t run when you need to or not bleed everywhere if you accidentally step on broken glass. Like they’re fine in the shower at the gym, but outside of instances like that, it’s a lazy man’s footwear. Sandals are sweatpants for feet. I don’t like sweatpants either.
“I want to lure people into the kitchen with the promise of pleasure, and not because it’s an obligation or something you “should” do. I happen to believe cooking is as interesting as watching TV or being on the computer, which is what people seem to be doing with the time they “save” by not cooking. Cooking isn’t drudgery. It takes real mental engagement; it offers sensual pleasures; it’s very enriching to cook.” - Michael Pollan in the recent issue of Lucky Peach.
My thoughts. Exactly.
“Yesterday’s home runs don’t win today’s games.” — Babe Ruth (via rulesformyunbornson)
I listened to an interview with the comedian Nick Kroll tonight, and the topic of trashy reality television was brought up. Nick’s new show on Comedy Central relies heavily on satirizing reality tv, and so the interviewer asked if Nick watches a lot of said tv. And he admitted that yeah, he did. He qualified it by saying he generally watches tv in 10 minute increments, so he doesn’t get necessarily get emotionally pulled into the shows as much as just surveys the landscape, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s not the point. The point is, there is shitty tv out there, objectively trashy, worthless, base, just horrible television, and yet, here is a successful comedian with two shows on tv and a vibrant, very productive career who is admitting to not only watching trash but using it as an inspiration.
This made me realize that I, and maybe we as a culture, are far too concerned about what we take in, when in reality what matters is what you do with it. I mean, who gives a shit how many Ted talks I’ve watched if I just sit here and do nothing? What does the legitimacy of my Netflix queue mean if all I do is watch Netflix? Meanwhile, Nick Kroll watched the goddamned E! network and some shit on Bravo and he has a show now. A show he wrote. Which is arduous and difficult and takes real skill.
Remember when we learned what Micheal Phelps ate for breakfast? It was like ten thousand calories of just carb heavy, sugar ridden junk. But guess what, he turned those chocolate chip pancakes into gold medals.
I think the inactive spend way too much time obsessing over exactly what they are consuming, while the active are too busy making stuff to worry about the legitimacy of the source. I bet a good indicator of general unproductiveness is to see just how closely you’re concerned with consumption.
“49ers wide receiver Randy Moss reportedly told his teammates that they are in New Orleans on a business trip and that they are not there to have fun. Then he went back to his job catching a ball for money.” — Jimmy Fallon does good sometimes.
“In the merger between domestic and international markets, it’s very important to focus on sustained growth while also keeping an eye on the bottom line. Principal investors also need to be willing to ride the ups and downs of the market rather than trying to quickly maximize yield.” — Today at work I started a game where the point was to talk in incredibly sexually explicit business speak. The above was my favorite. Though there was some great talk about spreadsheets.
Bottle Rocket is on Netflix.
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