Dinotopia artist James Gurney posted this video about a “change blindness” experiment. 75% of the participants didn’t notice that the experimenter who bent under a counter was replaced by a different person. Says Gurney: “Here’s proof that most of the time we look but don’t see.” I think Matisse said something to the effect that he didn’t really see things unless he was painting them.

I enjoyed this Funny or Die video about Prop. 8. (Thanks, Shawn!)

I enjoyed this video of an adorable baby laughing in slow motion, especially the creepy low-pitched laughter. Link (Thanks, Chris!)

After Mister Jalopy posted a link to mmk_kobayashi’s “tasteless, frequently mean, sporadically NSFW, sometimes jaw dropping and generally hilarious” Flickr photostream my productivity ground to a halt. Link

Radar asked Bill Geerhart to send follow-up notes to the serial killers he wrote in the late 1990s, posing as a 10-year-old. The killers promptly replied (both in 1998, and recently).

in the late ’90s, pop-culture historian Bill Geerhart had a little too much time on his hands and a surfeit of stamps. So, for his own entertainment, the then-unemployed thirtysomething launched a letter-writing campaign to some of the most powerful and infamous figures in the country, posing as a curious 10-year-old named Billy.

As it turns out, no group hates to disappoint a child more than convicted killers, all of whom responded promptly to Billy’s questions about dropping out of school. Their letters, published here for the first time, range from criminally insane to downright sensible, offering snapshots of the personalities behind some of America’s most hideous crimes. Recently, Radar asked Billy to follow up with his mentors as a college student. Link

polossatik says: “Klara.be (belgium art radio/channel) did an experiment with Belgian painter Luc Tuymans (who’s paintings go for million usd). What if you take art out of its usual context and expose it in the street? Would people even notice it?”

Funny video shows a dog who won’t go through a screenless screen door.

UPDATE Claudia points out that cats (Dutch, ones anyway) are as clueless as dogs when it comes to screenless screen doors. Link

Thomas Beattie lives in Oregon and is married to a woman named Nancy. He’s pregnant.

To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don’t appear in the least unusual. To those in the quiet Oregon community where we live, we are viewed just as we are — a happy couple deeply in love. Our desire to work hard, buy our first home, and start a family was nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until we decided that I would carry our child.

I am transgender, legally male, and legally married to Nancy. Unlike those in same-sex marriages, domestic partnerships, or civil unions, Nancy and I are afforded the more than 1,100 federal rights of marriage. Sterilization is not a requirement for sex reassignment, so I decided to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy but kept my reproductive rights. Wanting to have a biological child is neither a male nor female desire, but a human desire.

Link (Via YesButNoButYes)