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Creativity is sometimes described as thinking outside the box. Today the box is a gilded cage. In a climate of careerist conformity, cheap cities with bad reputations – where, as art critic James McAnalley notes, “no one knows whether it is possible for one to pursue a career” – may have their own advantage. “In the absence of hype, ideas gather, connections build, jagged at first, inarticulate,” McAnalley writes of St Louis. “Then, all of a sudden, worlds emerge.”
Perhaps it is time to reject the “gated citadels” – the cities powered by the exploitation of ambition, the cities where so much rides on so little opportunity. Reject their prescribed and purchased paths, as Smith implored, for cheaper and more fertile terrain. Reject the places where you cannot speak out, and create, and think, and fail. Open your eyes to where you are, and see where you can go.
via Expensive cities are killing creativity – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.

In the same vein, programmers who pay attention to how they construct written language also tend to pay a lot more attention to how they code. You see, at its core, code is prose. Great programmers are more than just code monkeys; according to Stanford programming legend Donald Knuth they are “essayists who work with traditional aesthetic and literary forms.” The point: programming should be easily understood by real human beings — not just computers.
And just like good writing and good grammar, when it comes to programming, the devil’s in the details. In fact, when it comes to my whole business, details are everything.
I hire people who care about those details. Applicants who don’t think writing is important are likely to think lots of other (important) things also aren’t important. And I guarantee that even if other companies aren’t issuing grammar tests, they pay attention to sloppy mistakes on résumés. After all, sloppy is as sloppy does.
That’s why I grammar test people who walk in the door looking for a job. Grammar is my litmus test. All applicants say they’re detail-oriented; I just make my employees prove it.
Read the summary of the #HBRchat on Twitter based on this blog post.
via I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why. – Kyle Wiens – Harvard Business Review.

British man becomes first person to visit all 201 countries… WITHOUT using a plane
Graham Hughes, 33, used buses, taxis, trains and his own two feet to travel 160,000 miles in exactly 1,426 days – all on a shoestring of just $100 a week
Yesterday he trudged into Juba, the capital of South Sudan, to end the epic journey that began in his hometown of Liverpool on New Year’s Day 2009
Spent four days ‘in a leaky boat’ to reach Cape Verde, was jailed for a week in Congo, and was ‘saved from Muslim fundamentalists by a Filipino ladyboy’
His lowest point was when his sister, Nicole, died of cancer two years ago
He says: ‘I think I wanted to show that the world is not some big, scary place, but in fact is full of people who want to help you’
via Graham Hughes: British man is first person to visit all 201 countries WITHOUT using a plane | Mail Online.

As I watched Bayonetta: Bloody Fate, the new anime film based on PS3 and 360 title Bayonetta, two thoughts kept running through my head: “This is the most 90s anime I have seen in a decade,” and “this is even more over-the-top than the game was!”
via The Bayonetta Movie is Even More Over-the-Top than the Game.

This was such a revealing and informative movie for me, to see what really happens behind those neat and glamorous programs we see on night after night on our TV screens. We never would have imagined that there is much chaos and exploitation before those final edits were reached. We have never seen these things behind the scenes depicted so honestly on screen. This could as well have been a documentary to further the cause of fair treatment of bit players. It is a position statement as much as it was entertainment.
Like “Babae sa Septic Tank” (an insider look into indie film making) last year, “Ekstra” is a definite must-see for all film fans to understand more in depth on how their beloved celluloid industry works.  This is excellent work by Director Jeffrey Jeturian. An indie 9/10.
via Fred Said: MOVIES: EKSTRA: An Excellent Paradox!.

1. Oats : Its not only tastes great but also reduces your hunger. Oats contains fiber which helps and stabilizes the levels of cholesterol.
2. Eggs : Eggs are the rich sources of proteins and low in calories. Eggs helps us to build the muscles and develops the good cholesterol.
3. Apples : Apples are enriched with powerful antioxidants and other supplements. Most importantly it contains Pectin which helps to reduce the fat cells in the body.
4. Green Chillies : Green chillies contains Capsaicin which helps to develop the body growth cells and burns the calories in quick time.
5. Garlic : Garlic contains Allicin which has anti-bacterial properties helps us to reduce the fat and removes the bad cholesterol.
6. Honey : Honey is the best one to burn fat. Add honey in warm water and take it daily in the early morning.
7. Green Tea : Green Tea is the most effective one which helps you to lose weight. It contains Antioxidants which helps and stabilizes our body weight.Take daily 2 cups of tea for a better results.
8. Wheat Grass : It boosts our metabolism and helps to reduce the fat.
9. Tomatoes : Tomatoes helps us to burn the fat in quick time. It also helps us to stay away from cancer. So Take tomatoes in your diet regularly.
10. Dark Chocolate : Dark chocolate contains Flavonoids, anti-inflammatory properties which helps to reduce the cholesterol levels in the blood. It boost the growth of serotonin in the blood and also burns the fat.
via 10 Foods That Burn Fat | Interesting Facts & Information.

Maoyu
via Crunchyroll – Maoyu Full episodes streaming online for free.

My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU
via Crunchyroll – My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Full episodes streaming online for free.

The film’s two lead actresses, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux—who were jointly awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival along with Kechiche—spoke of the scenes, with Seydoux calling them “very embarrassing” and Exarchopoulos saying as much in different terms. Exarchopoulos—who plays the title character (the French title translates to “The Life of Adèle, Chapters 1 and 2”)—later addressed the excessive attention paid to the twenty minutes of sex in the three-hour movie:
I understand it. American audiences aren’t used to it. It’s a choice by the director. We all have sex, it’s like a drug, everyone loves it. We had to show how making love to someone is visceral. We had to convey how much of yourself you give over. So we chose to show to everyone the emotion behind the discovering of one’s sexuality.
We are adults, so come on. It’s fiction, it’s cinema. I don’t get the big deal.
Exarchopoulos’s conflicted feelings get to the heart of the matter: sex is actually never not a big deal, whether in movies or in life. Sex is the joker in the deck, the infinite variable that provokes, on screen as in life, radically divergent and wildly unpredictable responses and consequences. But Kechiche brought trouble on himself—not by the decision to film sex scenes between two women but by the audacity of his artistry in doing so. The problem with Kechiche’s scenes is that they’re too good—too unusual, too challenging, too original—to be assimilated (despite Dargis’s protests to the contrary) to the familiar moviegoing experience. Their duration alone is exceptional, as is their emphasis on the physical struggle, the passionate and uninhibited athleticism of sex, the profound marking of the characters’ souls by their sexual relationship.
Most sex scenes in movies are index-card signifiers, giving visual evidence of the fact that the characters have sex at a given point in the story but not actually showing much of significance about the sexual relationship. Thus—to pick an example now on screens—the banal sex scenes between the characters played by Vincent Lindon and Chiara Mastroianni in Claire Denis’s “Bastards.” Had Kechiche limited himself to quick scenes featuring the long-familiar pneumatic conventions of writhing and sighing, there would be little embarrassment and little debate. But, rather, he gave the sex scenes between Adèle (Exarchopoulos) and Emma (Seydoux) a roiling power and an emotional weight that are central to the story. The scenes are rough, tender, funny, and harshly searching—each of the characters gives thoroughly, exhaustingly of herself as she seeks, as if in severe and sincere questioning, what she can discover from the other.
via The Problem with Sex Scenes That Are Too Good : The New Yorker.

Ever noticed that, when you’re hurrying through your daily routine, you always seem late? Ever wonder why, when you go somewhere new and unfamiliar, you’re always the first at the door? It’s the well-traveled road effect, and it messes with your head.
If you’re the person who always arrives late for regular events, there might be an explanation that doesn’t involve a major character flaw. When you first try to drive – or walk – a new road, you’re on the alert. You’re double-checking your directions. You’re peering around looking for scenery markers or ambiguous intersections. You are paying close attention, and so every moment of your trip stretches out. It seems to take a long time.
After the third or fourth time making the trip, the time it takes to travel seems to shrink. You’re used to the road and perhaps you know its quirks and shortcuts.
via Why you’re usually late (and sometimes early).