9 Notable Buildings With Secret Floors

Secret floors have long captured the imagination; conspiracy theorists love to imagine that government buildings keep their darkest secrets within sealed-off stories. In the 1960 Twilight Zone episode “The After Hours,” the ninth floor of a department store is where the mannequins mysteriously come to life. Meanwhile, the hidden 7th-and-a-half floor of the Mertin-Flemmer building in New York was a portal for John Cusack into the actual brain of John Malkovich in the movie Being John Malkovich.

While these mysteries may have come from a writer’s imagination, there are notable buildings that have whole secret floors right under your nose—if you know where to look.

-Mental Floss

We fear death, but what if dying isn't as bad as we think?

Research comparing perceptions of death with accounts of those imminently facing it suggest that maybe we shouldn’t worry so much about our own end.

“The idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else,” wrote Earnest Becker in his book, The Denial of Death. It’s a fear strong enough to compel us to force kale down our throats, run sweatily on a treadmill at 7am on a Monday morning, and show our genitals to a stranger with cold hands and a white coat if we feel something’s a little off.

-The Guardian

What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness

22 Facts About Ernest Hemingway

There is little dispute that Ernest "Papa" Hemingway is one of the most famous, beloved and influential writers in history.

Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899, in Oak Park, Illinois, to Clarence and Grace Hemingway. He was the second of six children. In his lifetime, he penned seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additionally, three novels, four short story collections and three non-fiction works have been published posthumously.

-Neatorama

Ultra Rare Never Dream of Dying Bond Girls Cards

Pussy Galore is perhaps the finest example of a so-called “punny name” in pop culture. Not since Dickens has the punny name game been played so well…. and just when you think it can’t be repeated, they release a Bond movie called Octopussy.

Little did the public know, there was going to be a whole slew of double entrendre, nominally determined Bond Girls in a never-made Bond film called Never Dream of Dying. It was to be released in 1978, but it was scrapped and Moonraker was released the following year in its place. It’s a widely held belief that it never made it to theaters because of some hardcore sexual situations in the film. The director, Tinto Brass, sought to capitalize on the disco-sex culture of the late seventies, but perhaps went a bit too far.

EON Productions chalked it up as a loss. Lesson learned. All evidence that it was ever made never made it out of MGM studios; merchandising never had a chance to hit the shelves…. except these cards. I present to you the ultra rare Never Dream of Dying Bond Girls Cards. Stare in awe at the only remaining physical evidence of the Bond film that never was.

-Flashbak

People Feel Powerful With Wide Cars and Big Watches - Consumers want to feel dominant through their belongings

It turns out that drivers of aggressive sports cars and big trucks may be compensating for more than their physical anatomy: Scientists say people who buy cars with wide front ends could be expressing their desire to appear dominant.

Research published Tuesday in the Journal of Consumer Research suggests that people like to buy products, such as cars and watches, with wide faces since those products convey some sense of dominance. The authors of this study found that consumers rated cars and watches with wide faces high in measures of dominance, which translated to high desirability.

-Inverse

TELS PÈRES TEL «VICE»

Le magazine contre-culturel canadien s’est mué en global media en se tournant vers la vidéo et le grand reportage, sacrifiant au passage son gourou viré facho.

En 1994, Vice n’est encore que Voice of Montreal, un fanzine gratuit rédigé par deux punks, Suroosh Alvi, toxicomane en sevrage, et Gavin McInnes, jardinier cartooniste, financés par un programme québécois de réinsertion sociale. Ce qui n’empêche pas Shane Smith, dit «Bullshiter Shane» (Shane l’Embrouille), troisième larron en charge du «marketing», d’appeler régulièrement ses deux compères au milieu de la nuit. «On va être riches, on va conquérir le monde», susurre-t-il dans le combiné.

-Libération

RÉJEAN DUCHARME, ÉCLIPSE DÉFINITIVE

«L’invisible Réjean Ducharme disparaît», titrait mardi le quotidien de Montréal le Devoir, rappelant combien l’écrivain et dramaturge québécois fuyait la lumière et les médias. L’insaisissable Réjean Ducharme est parti tout aussi discrètement, à 76 ans, dans la nuit de lundi à mardi, un peu plus d’un an après la disparition de sa compagne depuis près de cinquante ans, Claire Richard. On connaissait deux photos de lui en tout et pour tout : un vieux portrait d’identité et un peu récent Polaroid où on le voit debout dans la neige avec ses chiens, pris par sa compagne.

-Libération

Jusqu’au bout du monde avec Despentes - La trilogie «Vernon Subutex» trouve une fin brutale et magistrale

La France est sale, elle pue, elle s’effondre, se perd dans ses angoisses et ses contradictions, à en croire Virginie Despentes, romancière punk, chroniqueuse sur l’acide d’un présent qui s’enfonce, et qui poursuit son étude des moeurs d’une société en décrépitude avec le troisième et ultime chapitre de son Vernon Subutex. Une conclusion qui fait rimer brutal avec magistral. Forcément.

-Le Devoir

This teen stalker stole Queen Victoria’s panties and lived in Buckingham Palace chimneys for a year

One of the earliest celebrity stalkers in recorded history lived in the walls of Buckingham Palace by day and stole Queen Victoria’s panties by night.

-Timeline

Stephen King has spent half a century scaring us, but his legacy is so much more than horror

It’s nearly impossible to overstate how influential Stephen King is. For the past four decades, no single writer has dominated the landscape of genre writing like him. To date, he is the only author in history to have had more than 30 books become No. 1 best-sellers. He now has more than 70 published books, many of which have become cultural icons, and his achievements extend so far beyond a single genre at this point that it’s impossible to limit him to one — even though, as the world was reminded when the first trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of King’s It smashed records for most-watched trailer in a single day earlier this year, horror is still King’s calling card.

-Vox

The race to build the world’s first sex robot

The $30bn sex tech industry is about to unveil its biggest blockbuster: a $15,000 robot companion that talks, learns, and never says no.

In the brightly lit robotics workshop at Abyss Creations’ factory in San Marcos, California, a life-size humanoid was dangling from a stand, hooked between her shoulder blades. Her name was Harmony. She wore a white leotard, her chest was thrust forward and her French-manicured fingers were splayed across the tops of her slim thighs.

Harmony is a prototype, a robotic version of the company’s hyper-realistic silicone sex toy, the RealDoll. The Realbotix room where she was assembled was lined with varnished pine surfaces covered with wires and circuit boards, and a 3D printer whirred in the corner, spitting out tiny, intricate parts that will be inserted beneath her PVC skull. Her hazel eyes darted between me and her creator, Matt McMullen, as he described her accomplishments.

-The Guardian

Why female sex robots are more dangerous than you think

I was going to start this article about robots with a reference to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. But then I spoke to Blay Whitby, a philosopher concerned with the social impact of emerging technologies and the trivialisation of robots in the media - and I decided otherwise.

Because when it comes to robots, it’s simply no use discussing them through the lens of our favourite film or science fiction book. Cliched as it may be, the future is here; we can and should talk about reality. Within a matter of decades we’ve become entirely reliant on technology and robots are increasingly part of our everyday lives. Now it is estimated that realistic sex robots will become more common within a decade.

There are currently four manufacturers making life-like robotic dolls worldwide, but experts predict that in coming decades they could become widespread, used not just as a fetish, but for sexual therapy and as companions for lonely, disabled or older people.

-The Telegraph

Blank & Jones - I Love You (Late Night Mix) par bRu7-eXeC

Le naturisme sous toutes ses coutures

Pour certains, la nudité est synonyme d'intimité et de chambre à coucher. Pour d'autres, elle s'expose à la plage, dans un cours de yoga, lors d'une partie de volleyball, à la piscine ou dans la nature. Incursion dans le monde des naturistes.

-La Presse

How to Deal With North Korea - There are no good options. But some are worse than others.

Thirty minutes. That’s about how long it would take a nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launched from North Korea to reach Los Angeles. With the powers in Pyongyang working doggedly toward making this possible—building an ICBM and shrinking a nuke to fit on it—analysts now predict that Kim Jong Un will have the capability before Donald Trump completes one four-year term.

About which the president has tweeted, simply, “It won’t happen!”

Though given to reckless oaths, Trump is not in this case saying anything that departs significantly from the past half century of futile American policy toward North Korea. Preventing the Kim dynasty from having a nuclear device was an American priority long before Pyongyang exploded its first nuke, in 2006, during the administration of George W. Bush. The Kim regime detonated four more while Barack Obama was in the White House. In the more than four decades since Richard Nixon held office, the U.S. has tried to control North Korea by issuing threats, conducting military exercises, ratcheting up diplomatic sanctions, leaning on China, and most recently, it seems likely, committing cybersabotage.

-The Atlantic

Muscle Beach – Interesting Vintage Photos Show American Burly Guys from between the 1930s and 1950s

These are interesting vintage photos of American muscle men at the beaches from between the 1930s and 1950s.

-Vintage Everyday

25 Wild & Wonderful Disco Records from Around the World

Disco always had a tendency toward the audacious and get “crazier than a fish with tits” as they say.  So it should come as no surprise that there are more than a few odd and obscenely tacky disco album covers out there.  We’ll try and reign it in a bit, and limit ourselves to just those records that specifically have the word “disco” on the cover.  Some of these exhibit average levels of spastic kitsch; whereas others are completely off the reservation.  Enjoy.

-Flashbak

Jobs vs. AI: What happens when everything is automated?

One of the reasons I like to interview experts and students of technological change is to look at the differing perspectives we encounter. Bob Reselman is a technology press colleague of mine. When he told me he was researching the impact of automation on jobs, I knew I had to sit down and chat with him. Bob asks, " What will we do when everything is automated?" As the author of How To Save Jobs [free download], I immediately went to what I thought was the the big concern: lots and lots of people out of work. But in our interview, Bob took the question somewhere else entirely. His concern is how will people spend their time.

-ZD Net

The real reason you can’t quit Facebook? Maybe it’s because you can judge your friends

Facebook recently announced that it now has over 2 billion monthly users. This makes its “population” larger than that of China, the US, Mexico and Japan combined. Its popularity, and with it the influence it has in society, is beyond dispute. But for many the experience of actually using the site fluctuates somewhere between the addictive and the annoying. Our new research shows that the reason for this is very simple. It’s all to do with other people, and how we feel about them.

-The Conversation

Jon Ronson on bespoke porn: ‘Nothing is too weird. We consider all requests’

Over the past 18 months, I’ve been tracing the consequences of all that free porn. It’s laying waste to the Valley, compelling some actors to take up escorting, and putting crews and production companies out of business. But today nine people are all to have sex simultaneously, so Quasar has needed to hire Nate. They’re old colleagues from the pre-PornHub days, but now barely see each other.

“This is a rare day,” Nate tells me, “working for Mike, shooting real porn.”

“What do you normally do?” I ask.

“Customs,” he says.

I give him a quizzical look.

“Fans write their own scripts and pay us to shoot exactly what they want,” he explains.

-The Guardian

Les plages temporelles d’Old Orchard Beach

Camp Ellis, Ferry Beach, Bay View, Kinney Shores, Ocean Park, Old Orchard, Pine Point… Des noms qui claquent comme des voiles au vent, évoquant aux familiers de ces lieux de vacances une plage de sable de 15 kilomètres, de ports de mer où l’on déguste homards, palourdes et huîtres, une jetée sur pilotis animée, un parc d’attractions coloré. Malgré bien des avatars au fil de sa riche histoire, la baie de Saco — et son épicentre, Old Orchard Beach — continue d’attirer les habitués et leur descendance.

-Le Devoir

The Uninhabitable Earth

Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think.

-NY Mag

A Look Inside Hotel & Motel Rooms of the 1950s-70s

Let’s have a look inside the rooms of 38 U.S. hotels and motels from the late fifties through the seventies. Whether it’s a cheap roadside motel in Tennessee or a chic Hawaiian resort – the “handsomely decorated” retro interiors  are a wonder to behold. Be prepared for a plentiful supply of wood paneling, tiny televisions, and gaudy wallpaper. The images come from vintage postcards, and I’ve included the postcard text when available. Enjoy.

-Flashbak

Scenes From My Life in Porn

Deception and lies are the essence of pornography. It’s no different from any other branch of the entertainment industry. In porn, for example, we had the same thing that they call “magic” in Hollywood -- except we called it “bullshit.” This is the power to create seductive illusions that move and entertain a mass audience, and perhaps give them that ineffable gift, hope.

But porn is a crude business. Even the fantasies it sells have the feel of cheap disillusionment. What seduced me was the reality.

-LA Weekly

Is Complaining Good or Bad For You?

We all know (or even love dearly) someone who complains about everything. They complain about their partner, the weather, their boss, their weight, their internet speed, that the only thing on the menu at the local Indian restaurant is Indian food, or that this portobello sandwich has mushrooms on it! 

-Quick and Dirty Tips