January 2011
“Fond of animals, Einstein kept a housecat which tended to get depressed whenever...”
– Ten Obscure Factoids Concerning Albert Einstein
(via interconnected)
Funny, I’ve associated a multitude of emotions with my cat, but never sadness.
“I have a theory that every time you make an important choice, the part of you...”
– Jeanette Winterson, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
(via materialworld)
“Ballumb Ambal Eoragu yindyamarra. Ngadu—yirra bang marang. I pay respect to the...”
– Linda Burney, Inaugural Speech, Parliament of NSW, 2003
“The whole point of learning about the human race, presumably, is to give it...”
– Reynolds Price
“Girls aren’t bombarded with messages telling them that their mental power is...”
– Nightmare Brunette
(via oversets)
But *I* want to be human!
Ellen Tigh: The five of us designed you to be as human as possible.
Brother Cavil: I don’t want to be human! I want to see gamma rays! I want to hear X-rays! And I want to - I want to smell dark matter! Do you see the absurdity of what I am? I can’t even express these things properly because I have to - I have to conceptualize complex ideas in this stupid limiting spoken language! But I...
The Perils of Unleashing Students' Skepticism →
On questioning science.
See also: Why Has Critique Run out of Steam?
Can sitting too much kill you? →
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Yes, and it will kill you slowly and painfully. If you sit a lot, for work or pleasure, get a standing desk or some other (possibly uncomfortable) furniture that makes you get up, stretch and/or walk around regularly. Seriously. Bodies are not designed to sit, and the effects of sitting too much only get worse over time.
The Time Hack →
“The Time Hack is an experiment aimed at exploring whether our perception of time is influenced by our actions. The year-long project aims to test whether time itself is flexible and whether our brains measure time differently than the clocks around us … Each day, I engage in a new experience to understand how my perception of time speeds and slows in relation to each event. Can I...
“I am happy now that George calls on my bedchamber less frequently than of old....”
– Lady Alice Hillingdon, Wife of 2nd Baron Hillingdon, 1912.
(in J. Gathorne-Hardy, Rise and Fall of the British Nanny, 1972 - although the journal has never been traced.)
I don’t care if the quote is accurate or accurately attributed; it’s a good story. Plus, Lady Hillingdon also has a...
The Great Chemical Unknown →
“Experts guesstimate that about 50,000 chemicals are used in U.S. consumer products and industrial processes. Why the uncertainty? The 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act does not require chemicals to be registered or proven safe before use. Because the Environmental Protection Agency must show, after the fact, that a substance is dangerous, it has managed to require testing of only...
“Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for...”
– Neil Gaiman
The Museum of Idolatry →
Christianity today…
(via @GreatDismal)
Our hidden second skin
Why do dead cats call up such ludicrous tears? Why such deep mourning? Because we can no longer see in the dark without them? Because we’re cold without their fur? Because we’ve lost our hidden second skin, the one we’d change into when we wanted to have fun, when we wanted to kill things without a second thought, when we wanted to shed the dull grey weight of being human?
excerpt...
“Every aspect of life is an experiment that can be better understood if it is...”
– Roger Schank
Technologies have biases
“People like to think of technologies and media as neutral and that only their use or content determines their impact. Guns don’t kill people, after all, people kill people. But guns are much more biased toward killing people than, say, pillows — even though many a pillow has been utilized to smother an aging relative or adulterous spouse.
Our widespread inability to recognize or...
“[A] good scientist is never ‘certain’. Lack of certainty is...”
– Carlo Rovelli
Zodiac signs change due to Earth's rotation →
Still a Leo.
The Sciences Sing a Lullaby
Physics says: go to sleep. Of course you’re tired. Every atom in you has been dancing the shimmy in silver shoes nonstop from mitosis to now. Quit tapping your feet. They’ll dance inside themselves without you. Go to sleep. Geology says: it will be all right. Slow inch by inch America is giving itself to the ocean. Go to sleep. Let darkness lap at your sides. Give darkness an inch. You aren’t...
The Year of Practical Thinking →
Awesome list of something learned every day in 2010.
“We can follow the examples of brave activists who lived through the difficult...”
– Derrick Jensen
The “moral purity” he’s talking about is related to personal change and ethical consumption, which, he warns, should not be confused with active citizenship or social change.
(via materialworld)
Slip-Sliding Away, Down the Ethical Slope →
To behave ethically is not a one-step process: Do the right thing. It is a sometimes arduous eight-step process. To behave ethically, you must:
1. Recognize that there is a situation that deserves to be noticed and reflected upon.
2. Define the situation as having an ethical component.
3. Decide that the ethical component is important enough to deserve attention.
4. View the ethical...
“I say enough with all this bellyaching! The Internet is just a thing that sits...”
– Kevin Hartnett
(via booksinthekitchen)
Procrastination →
“Let’s imagine you are in a class where you must complete three research papers in three weeks, and the instructor is willing to allow you to set your own due dates.
You can choose to turn in your papers once a week, or two on the first week and one on the second. You can turn them all in on the last day, or you can spread them out. You could even choose to turn in all three at the...
Stanford Professor Calls Women's Equality 'Stalled... →
“While women have made amazing progress in nearly every measure of equality—and have even equaled or surpassed men in some categories—on the whole, women are still systematically deprived of many advantages society affords men.”
And students love to tell me that feminism isn’t necessary anymore…
“In short, he so busied himself in his books that he spent the nights reading...”
– Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote
For Elderly, Conservative Beliefs Buffer... →
“Van Hiel and Brebels argue that old age is a time to take stock of your life and attempt to find meaning. For most, this means looking back at your experiences and accomplishments in the context of your social environment. A social-conservative belief system, which values your culture or society above others, would elevate your own personal status, thus propping up your self-esteem...
