It's easier than ever to surround yourself with ideas you "know",

So it's even more fabulous when you run headlong into a whole world that you never knew existed.

The Only Video I Cannot Watch With A Straight Face.

One day I will be able to perform this.  It is my Everest.

Coping Mecca-nisms.

I've mentioned before the thrill when a personal hunch turns out to coincide with a fully developed academic theory - and it seems I've stumbled on to another one.

I've long observed startling patterns in how people deal with issues that are presented to them - in my own mind I had created a rough summary that I called The Six Ds":

• Delegate - Make it someone else's problem.
• Defer / Delay - Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?
• Deny - What problem?
• Distort - The problem really isn't as big as you think it is.
• Dismiss - It's not actually a problem.
• Deal With / Do - Hand me a shovel.

I see these all the time - at work, in projects, in politics...once you start looking for patterns in how people are avoiding an issue, you can't stop seeing them.

In the back of my mind I had also started to think on how one would calculate the economic cost of each of these strategies.  Perhaps something like this:

Final Cost  =  Original Cost  x  Coping Strategy Factor

Where the Coping Strategy Factor of just dealing with the issue was 1, and the varied for the others.

Note that I'm not suggesting that any of these strategies are inherently "bad", in fact delegating an issue to the right person can often be more efficient than dealing with it yourself.  Likewise, deferring an issue is a very real option for a time-bound non-critical low-risk issue.

But alas, I am 23 years late.  I finally got around to searching the literature and found this rather thorough treatment of coping strategies (I kind of expected this - that's why I had deferred looking for it):

Assessing coping strategies: A theoretically based approach.

Carver, Charles S.;Scheier, Michael F.;Weintraub, Jagdish K.

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 56(2), Feb 1989, 267-283. 

doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.56.2.267

Here's a copy of the paper on harvard.edu.

And here's the important bit - their (exceptional) classification system:

I'm not well-versed enough in psychology to know if this is a seminal paper (I'll ask my mother next chance I get) but it's certainly an interesting read and a well-structured model.  I haven't seen anything in there about modelling the economic cost of each strategy, so there's still a bit more looking to do.

It's good to hear a story about a big company doing the right thing.

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=13611

Amazon may not be a "trendy" tech company, but at least they know how to get the basics right.

Best line:

“Well, hell, we’re sorry about this, how about we sort this out quickly and cheaply for you instead of humping you right in the eyesockets and stealing your wallet?”

This is what happens when a choreographer tries to take the piss.

"OK, balance your entire body on the very tip of your big toe, on top of some guy's forehead, spinning in a circle while he prances around the stage.  And stick your other foot around your head.  Then do a flip."

"Holy crap."

Finally look the way you've always dreamed.

"You don't have to rely on a healthy body image or self respect any more."

I Love The World.

It just keeps getting better.

Exhibit A: A portable Super Nintendo that can just be bought from the shop.  For money.  Off the shelf.  Legitimately.

My favourite part is the top review:

"So in conclusion i love the Supaboy. Its so bad. The day it came in the mail was the best day of my life. Take that birth of my son."

"A Runway for an Overactive Imagination"

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/12/how-atari-games-showed-me-the-power-of-childrens-imagination.ars

Best description of video games I've ever heard, particularly in regard to older "vintage" games, where the low fidelity of the games provides plenty of room for imagination.

Gah!

Brought to you by Dyson Inc.

Entangled.

Spectacular short film on what should not be a controversial issue:

Irreferent.

Harold Camping, renowned end-of-world prediction failure, deserves no more introduction than I have just given.

What surprises me, however, is this line in his Wikipedia entry:

"October 21, 2011, passed without the predicted apocalypse^[16]"

The statement is reasonable, but do we really need a reference?

Photos of the Year.

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2011/12/2011-the-year-in-photos-part-1-of-3/100203/

Part 1 of 3.  Extraordinary images.

The most chilling is #7, a family photo taken by a small-town politician moments before his assassination:

Perspectively Speaking.

Here's that iconic masterpiece, The Scream:

A question:

Is it a painting of a person screaming, or of a person hearing a scream?

The Chain of Command.

My favourite scene from an otherwise forgotten classic.  

Life tip:  Try not to be the last man standing.

Free Enterprise.

Good to see the free market at work.

Scarcely.

"Place are limited due to room size"

I just saw that in a brochure.

Daftest sentence I've ever read.  Really?  If I give you money, you won't just hire a bigger room?

Scarcity is a powerful thing, but at least put some thought into it.

"We've limited available places to keep the experience as close and focused as possible"

is a bit better.  Still not great, but at least it has some meaning.

Whisky Beer?

Why was I not told about this earlier?

Back to School Drinks.

http://americandrink.net/post/11697766904/back-to-school-special

My favourite would have to be "Mommy Needs a Minute";

1 box apple juice
2 oz. bourbon
dash Angosturra bitters

"Build over ice. Stir gently with a pen, crayon, finger or any other stick-shaped object. Garnish with tears."

Holy Crap.

I truly did not know a person could do this.

Nor did I know that this guy was still alive.

(You'll need headphones.  Loud headphones.)