5 Intriguing Things
1. O, Excellent Air Bag: On the nitrous craze of 1799.
"After an eternity he was brought back to earth by the sensation of Dr. Kinglake removing the breathing-tube from his mouth; the outside world seeped back into his 'semi-delirious trance' and, as the energy returned to his limbs, he began to pace around the room. Yet a part of him was still present in the dimension of mind that had swallowed him whole, and he struggled for the words to capture it. He 'stalked majestically' towards Kinglake 'with the most intense and prophetic manner', and attempted to shape the insight that had possessed him. 'Nothing exists but thoughts!' he blurted. 'The world is composed of impressions, ideas, pleasures and pains!'"
2. This 16-year-old Vine celebrity can make tens of thousands of dollars for a six-second video.
"A little over a year ago, Nash, a rising junior from the suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, used his iPhone to do what millions of American teenagers have done: He joined Vine, a social media site launched by Twitter to share looping videos that are up to six seconds long. He started posting bite-sized clips filmed in his bedroom, or, for something truly exotic, the local Wal-Mart. These mini-movies, with titles like 'When you can't find your phone in your pockets…' trade on the mundane minutiae of high school life, and they drive girls wild. In that particular clip, Nash rummages through his pockets for his phone, finds nothing and hurls the pillows off a sofa. 'You are awesome 
my inspiration every day 
,' gushed one of the hundreds of thousands of comments posted to videos like that one."
3. Computers are not good storytellers.
"The current system operates by generating a narrative path based on a human user's selection from one out of six morals found in Aesop's fables: retribution, greed, pride, realistic expectations, recklessness and reward. After the desired moral outcome is selected, the computer produces a sequence of events, with characters capable of experiencing a total of 22 emotions. More elaborate storytelling, according to Sarlej, would require a rudimentary grasp of common sense. Which, generally speaking, is still pretty much a human thing."
4. Germany's anti-racist, anti-homophobia football club, St. Pauli.
"Formed in 1910, FC St Pauli was a fairly normal working class football club until the mid-1980s, when the club became the antidote to a rising tide of far-right hooliganism on German football terraces. Earlier in the day, I got the story first-hand from Sven Brux, who might just be the living embodiment of FC St Pauli’s recent history. He’s a former punk with a glint in his eye, who still wears an earring, smokes roll-ups and meets us in the stadium offices in a pair of battered black Reebok trainers. He founded the club’s supporters’ group and its first fanzine, Millerntor Roar, and has been involved with St Pauli since 1987. Today he’s the club’s head of organisation and security, a big job given that the club boasts roughly 600 worldwide supporters’ groups and 11 million fans – the same number as Tottenham Hotspur in England. He’s also an elected chairman of the Jolly Roger, the legendary fan-owned bar near the stadium. 'I came to Hamburg to do my civil service in 1985,' he says. 'I’d been into football as a young boy, but then I got into the punk scene and football fans became the enemies. Nazis and hooligans were ruling the terraces, and if you saw football supporters at the central station, there’d be trouble.'"
"Yes, it comes with a series of 'performance light indicators,' in case you need to look down and get a visual reminder of just how you're doing in the sack. Maintain a good rhythm, and all five lights will glow nice and bright. Built into the 'hub' of the SexFit—the brains of the device—is both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity."
Today's 1957 American English Language Tip
chiaroscuro. It., 'clear-dusk.' In art, the employment of light & shade, omitting the colors.
Capable of Experiencing a Total of 22 Emotions