Ask a Black Guy!

Comedian Paul Mooney, expanding and amplifying on various topics.



Found on Bossip.

Tuffet

"Tuffet, pouffe or hassock are all terms for a piece of furniture used as a footstool or low seat." Image related, with said tuffet being demonstrated by Katherine Monsalve.

Found on F-listed.

Breakfast Granola for 2/26/10

Y'know, this sounds vaguely familiar...



Found on Boing Boing.

Breakfast Granola for 2/25/10

If you're lost, find a map. And if you're LOST...you can still find a map: The Cartographic Wonders of Lost Island.

For as detailed as the creators tried to make the world of LOST, it's interesting to note that while not all maps agree on all locations -- either through lapses in continuity, or ambiguity or misinterpretation -- there's still some consensus.

So, if you're at the Pala Ferry Dock, how long does it take you to return to the Barracks after your shift at Pearl Station?

Found on io9.

The best is yet to come...

...but we still have to wait for it. Behold, the future of Hellsing the Ultimate.

Blame Quebec!

Seriously, nobody likes you.

Breakfast Granola for 2/24/10

Q: How good is Canadian healthcare? A: Not very.

An unapologetic (Newfoundland and Labrador Premier) Danny Williams says he was aware his trip to the United States for heart surgery earlier this month would spark outcry, but he concluded his personal health trumped any public fallout over the controversial decision.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Williams said he went to Miami to have a "minimally invasive" surgery for an ailment first detected nearly a year ago, based on the advice of his doctors.

[...]

"This was my heart, my choice and my health," Williams said late Monday from his condominium in Sarasota, Fla.

[...]

The 60-year-old Williams said doctors detected a heart murmur last spring and told him that one of his heart valves wasn't closing properly, creating a leakage.

He said he was told at the time that the problem was "moderate" and that he should come back for a checkup in six months.

Eight months later, in December, his doctors told him the problem had become severe and urged him to get his valve repaired immediately or risk heart failure, he said.

His doctors in Canada presented him with two options - a full or partial sternotomy, both of which would've required breaking bones, he said.

He said he spoke with and provided his medical information to a leading cardiac surgeon in New Jersey who is also from Newfoundland and Labrador. He advised him to seek treatment at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami.

That's where he was treated by Dr. Joseph Lamelas, a cardiac surgeon who has performed more than 8,000 open-heart surgeries.

Williams said Lamelas made an incision under his arm that didn't require any bone breakage.

"I wanted to get in, get out fast, get back to work in a short period of time," the premier said.

[....]

Williams said his decision to go to the U.S. did not reflect any lack of faith in his own province's health care system.

"I have the utmost confidence in our own health care system in Newfoundland and Labrador, but we are just over half a million people," he said.

"We do whatever we can to provide the best possible health care that we can in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Canadian health care system has a great reputation, but this is a very specialized piece of surgery that had to be done and I went to somebody who's doing this three or four times a day, five, six days a week."

Seems like Williams' advice is that if you can avoid Canadian healthcare that you should.

Found on the googlenews.

Speaking of shenanigans...

This appears to be some very unsafe horseplay; the shaheed on the left appears to be paddling the shaheed on the right with a rocket-propelled grenade. Oh Taliban, you so crazy!

Found with other WTF on Funtasticus.

Breakfast Granola for 2/23/10

She's a cute, crazy redhead, and she's left unattended at an airport overnight; PIT, you get what you deserve. It's all pretty funny, but the true awesome doesn't kick in until around 2:16 and she shows off some leg strength and flexibility...



Found on Boing Boing.

Enough of that, more of this

Unidentified by Holy Taco, but I do believe that's Candice Swanepoel.

Breakfast Granola for 2/22/10

Let's see how many deficiencies we can count in The Mine from this Lifehacker article, Make Sure You're Not De-Motivating Your Team:

It should come as no surprise that money is a pretty powerful motivator for workers, but an article by researchers at Harvard Business School says it takes more than cash to keep employees happy and productive.

The article suggests that managers spend too much time trying to figure out how to motivate employees—something most workers are perfectly capable of doing themselves. Instead, team leaders need to get out of the way and stop de-motivating employees with mindless policies and poor management strategies.

The authors say people have three main goals at work: 1) to be treated with respect and equity, 2) to take pride in a job well done, and 3) to have good relationships with fellow employees. If even one of these factors are missing, workers are three times as likely to be unhappy at work. Surprisingly, not even a better paycheck will make up for the loss of one of the three biggest motivators.

Here's that HBS article in case you want a really good cry.