• Linking Park: 2006-W45

    edited by Alexander Becker on November 11, 2006 | Link

    Interestingness and how to avoid the pitfalls thereof; beauty and the trap of retaining juvenile features; finally, your cuteness and five fights.

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    ... we know it will be hard to drag yourself away from your account for 4 hours, maybe this will give you a chance to clear away those cobwebs you told friends were "Halloween decorations."

    In order to be interesting, you can do a number of things --

    1. The way to be interesting is to be interested. You've got to find what's interesting in everything, you've got to be good at noticing things, you've got to be good at listening. If you find people (and things) interesting, they'll find you interesting.
    2. Interesting people are good at sharing. You can't be interested in someone who won't tell you anything. Being good at sharing is not the same as talking and talking and talking. It means you share your ideas, you let people play with them and you're good at talking about them without having to talk about yourself.

    Being interesting enough is a prerequisite for creative impact and even more. Take a look at the genealogy of influence, a graph of biographical entries at Wikipedia with connections denoting creative influence between philosophers, social scientists, writers, artists, scientists, mathematicians.

    The other side of the coin should be avoided and is covered in great detail on the list of faux pas --

    ... generalized information about the social expectations in various countries. Changing attitudes and multiculturalism within countries mean that some entries listed here may apply to the social expectations of only a few individuals. To avoid giving offense, it is best to use a conservative and observant approach in any social situation where one is unfamiliar with cultural expectations.

    Let's take a look at beauty and diet with their sometimes strange paths, I am questioning your beauty and leave you with this --

    Take care of your expression and the impression you make on others is taking care of itself.

    After that, are you still dying to be cute?

    Are celebrities starving themselves to mimic our culture's image of "cuteness"? There are well established theories on our species preference for "juvenile features" (large eyes, bulging craniums, retreating chins), and that over generations our shape has evolved to mimic this appearance.

    In a society where looks mean so much, young stars maybe using anorexia as an evolutionary shortcut to the ultimate image of cuteness.

    Neoteny is the special term used here --

    The retention by adults of a species of traits previously seen only in juveniles, and is a subject studied in the field of developmental biology. In neoteny, the physiological (or somatic) development of an animal or organism is slowed or delayed. Ultimately this process results in the retention, in the adults of a species, of juvenile physical characteristics well into maturity.

    Do you want tangible evidence with too thin star bodies? Kate Bosworth, Nicole Richie and others are making headlines for their startling appearances. Tell us, are they too thin?

    Not to mention the cute factor --

    Cute cues are those that indicate extreme youth, vulnerability, harmlessness and need, scientists say, and attending to them closely makes good Darwinian sense. As a species whose youngest members are so pathetically helpless they can't lift their heads to suckle without adult supervision, human beings must be wired to respond quickly and gamely to any and all signs of infantile desire.

    The human cuteness detector is set at such a low bar, researchers said, that it sweeps in and deems cute practically anything remotely resembling a human baby or a part thereof, and so ends up including the young of virtually every mammalian species, fuzzy-headed birds like Japanese cranes, woolly bear caterpillars, a bobbing balloon, a big round rock stacked on a smaller rock, a colon, a hyphen and a close parenthesis typed in succession.

    For good measure and some -- yours and mine -- entertainment, enjoy these representative samples of certain types of movie fight scenes, distinguished only by their irrefutable excellence --

    Violent confrontation[s] in which one (or preferably both) combatants go into the showdown unarmed; in other words, barroom brawls, martial arts showdowns, boxing matches and schoolyard dust-ups.

    To your excellent life.

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