A NYtimes article published today discusses DNA testing as a "family history research tool." Among the famous whose DNA has been tested is Marie Antoinette, who belonged to maternal Haplogroup H (along with about half of all Europeans). Katie Couric (maternal Haplogroup K) is genetically linked to a 5,000-year-old iceman whose body was recently discovered in the Alps. And Jesse James? T2, a subgroup of maternal Haplogroup T. Whether you've mapped your family's taproots or would rather... READ ON
Neuroscientists believe we have about 100 to 500 trillion individual synapses firing in our adult brains. So although our desire to continually stuff our minds may be earnest, brain capacity is finite--about one to ten terabytes, and it's estimated that the average person's vocabulary treads water well under 100,000 words. When I was growing up, road trips meant I was frequently captive audience to certain kinds of niche talk radio programs—which were bad enough without those commercial... READ ON
By now we can all probably agree that it would be unpleasant at best to wake up and find ourselves in the charge of Naomi Campbell. Or, retroactively, Leona Helmsley. Or Schopenhauer, who apparently hurled his seamstress down a flight of stairs just because he was peeved by the sound of her voice. You don't have to see the world through a master-slave lens or live by the Stanford Prison experiments to acknowledge that the hierarchy of workplaces can be rife with opportunities for abuse. The most... READ ON
Recently, my roommate starred in a music video of one of her songs (it's great--I'll post it when it's edited). Even though I had been minimally involved in the bureaucracy of staged productions in college, I'd never seen a real stylist in action. I'd never seen a team of people so passionately engaged over which pair of patterned tights would go with which bracelets to effect the ideal tone. When I showed up on set to watch it all go down, I was impressed: yes there somehow was a vast,... READ ON
Ever since arriving in LA, I've been receiving invites to Cuddle Parties, gatherings I can't help but regard with suspicion, despite the "cuddlemonials." I came close to going a few times, but my co-conspirators always dissolved at the last... READ ON
Recently, to feed my Gosling-film quota, I saw Lars and the Real Girl, in which a 27 year-old man presents a blow-up doll as his... READ ON
Next month, Se Ri Pak is going to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Maybe then her father will finally lay off the extreme training tactics, which have included, in no particular order: taking her to pit-bull fights training her in cemeteries & in freezing weather until icicles formed in her hair reprimanding her with a stick called a pechori making her climb 15-story staircases--backward & forward In a 1998 NYTimes profile of Pak & Pak, an incident at one of Se Ri's first... READ ON
In the midst of all the Kid Nation hype & the ongoing fascination w/Lynne Spears, Dina Lohan, it seems that the presence of stage mothers is stronger than ever. Here's a look at few stage moms from... READ ON
That Bela--alternately so jovial, so brutish! The image of Karolyi hoisting Kerri Strug to the champion's podium is one of the most ubiquitous images of the 1996 Olympics. Nadia Comaneci, Mary Lou Retton, et al. have defended him, but others--most notably Joan Ryan of Little Girls in Pretty Boxes fame--contend that his techniques are psychologically damaging. A Slate profile circa the 2000 Sydney Olympics illuminates the shadows Ryan explores: He sought younger and younger girls to train, and... READ ON
In Ayurvedic medicine body types are grouped into three main categories, or doshas: vata, pitta, and kappa. Your dosha is determined by how quickly you anger and metabolize, which foods you seek out and eschew, etc. It's not going to be able to predict your blood pressure or heart rate, but determining your dosha can be a great DIY diagnostic exercise; however, I sometimes I wish there were a similar system to help calculate the rate at which & style in which we think and consequently express ourselves.... READ ON
5 Questions: Jimmy Hoffa
Lesser-Known Founding Fathers
Only two people remain who are fluent in Ayapaneco—but they refuse to talk to each other.
