Quote of the day
People repeat these legends to bolster their beliefs about society or how they would like society to be. How should we deal with such stories when we hear them? We should treat them skeptically.
~DAVID WILTON, author of Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends
CREATIVITY
8 secrets to creative thinking (Hint: Steal from others) [Bob Gill, So Far
], Fastcodesign | Tweet
Interesting solutions begin with interesting problems. So reframe the problem.
SOCIAL SCIENCES
Can violence be virtuous? [Virtuous Violence: Hurting and Killing to Create, Sustain, End, and Honor Social Relationships
], The Marshall Project | Tweet
What do police-involved shootings have in common with gang violence, rape, warfare, and even football? According to the anthropologist Alan Page Fiske of UCLA — best known for studying how people relate, socially — they are all examples of “virtuous violence,” violence that seems, to its perpetrators, to be morally defensible and even righteous.
LINGUISTICS
What does ‘OK’ stand for, anyway? [Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends
], io9 | Tweet
As a linguistic phrase, OK is something of a phenomenon, traveling from American English into hundreds of other languages. And there are tons of myths about how OK emerged to mean that things are hunky-dory. But which story is correct? The truth is a little bit goofy.
NUTRITION
Vitamin-enriched foods help unhealthy diets thrive [Real Food: What to Eat and Why
], Big Think | Tweet
Were it not for the vitamins added to our food, from cereals and grains to milk and orange juice, the famously unhealthy American diet would be more difficult to sustain — perhaps forcing us to eat healthier, fresher foods.
THE MIND
Five ways to improve your brainpower [The Brain’s Way of Healing
], The Guardian | Tweet
It used to be thought that the brain was hardwired and that, unlike other organs, it could not repair itself or restore lost functions once damaged or diseased. Now we know that, in fact, the brain is neuroplastic – that activity and mental experience can be used to change the structure of the connections within it. These new principles are being used to radically improve, and even sometimes cure, some brain problems that were previously seen as irreversible – and some of them can also be used in everyday life to improve our brain’s health and performance. Here are five things to try.
TECHNOLOGY
Youtube is 10 years old, but what will it look like in 2025? [YouTube Black Book
], The Guardian | Tweet
Predictions for the future of Google’s online video service, from sports rights and games to co-viewing and voice recognition.
AMAZON
6 ways to save money on Amazon that you probably never knew, Lifehack
| Tweet
If you’re reading this, you probably love shopping on Amazon just like I do. And if you’re anything like me, you also want to buy as much as you can and save money in the process. Well, you could wait for the sales season to do all of your shopping. But if you want to save money on Amazon right now, there are ways to do it. And here are six ways you could do just that.
BOOKS
Where the library gets its books, Hyperallergic | Tweet
Up on a hill in a guarded compound, not far from where Harvard University keeps its primate labs, a 127,000-square-foot structure holds the heart of the institution’s library. With its concrete exterior lined with utility tubes, the Harvard Depository may not look like much, but inside are “nine million items and counting,” as narrator Jeffrey Schnapp explains in the new short documentary “Cold Storage.”
WRITING
How strong female characters still end up weak and powerless (or, do they pass the action figure test?), Terrible minds | Tweet
The idea of writing a “strong female character” isn’t enough. As shorthand, it sounds noble. It seems spot on. But a lot of writers — and writing advice about the subject — seem to get it wrong. I get asked about this a lot, I guess because write women or girl characters like Miriam Black or Atlanta Burns who, on paper, kick a lot of ass.
Breaking heroines to break heroes with Sarah M. Anderson, Romance University | Tweet
Okay, fine. All books have to have plot and action, otherwise they get dull. Carry on. But what happened next bothered me. The heroine had to have her head shaved and a shunt put into her brain—again, this was major surgery. The hero’s reaction was, I think, fairly standard according to Romance Plots: He had failed the heroine by not protecting her and, therefore, was not good enough for her. In fact, the hero concluded he was actively bad for the heroine. He had to keep his distance. There was a lot of manly angst about this (aka whining and moping).