June 25, 2009 began as a normal day. I was in Bloomington, Indiana, teaching an introductory folklore class (cleverly disguised as a sociology course) for the local community college. About an hour into our discussion, one of my students' phones began to vibrate loudly. I leveled him with a stern "teacher's glare" as he silenced his phone, but not ( Read more... )

I've been reading The Last Psychiatrist's blog for a while now. He (she?) was curious about whether the moon cycles really do affect people's craziness and searched for studies and statistics done. After citing them and boring statistics, he concluded something that I think makes better sense ( Read more... )

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Hi. You know, the Internet is so full of stuff that I am overwhelmed. There's too much! Everything is a mess, and my profile is a mess. I envy that person who didn't need to say anything on his profile page except "Me neat." So here's a bunch of pretty swag that I have transferred from my profile page, enjoy:


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The study of mirror neurons is still developing, but it is beginning to shed light on motor and language development, and also empathy. We may cry at the sight of a sad friend, screw up our face when we see someone react to a bad smell, or cringe when we see someone punched, because we are mirroring what she is experiencing. Research by the French- ( Read more... )

The "old hacker" of the 1960s and 1970s is often characterized with no small amount of nostalgia and is frequently seen as a counterpoint to the emergence of the new breed of hacker, the "cyberpunk" or "cracker." The "old hackers," in this romanticized telling, were "a certain breed of programmers who launched the 'computer revolution,' but just ( Read more... )

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Ten Top Trivia Tips about The swordmaiden!

1. Koalas sleep for 22 hours a day, two hours more than the swordmaiden!
2. If you cut the swordmaiden in half and count the number of seeds inside, you will know how many children you are going to have.
3. The swordmaiden can be very poisonous if injected intravenously.
4. Bananas don't grow on trees - they grow on the ( Read more... )

"Wikihistory," by Desmond Warzel.

http://www.abyssandapex.com/200710-wikihistory.html

Edit: link is dead, try this one: http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/08/wikihistory