February 2012
86 posts
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Never real and always true: on depression and... →
Writer James Bradley’s wonderful essay on the links, both real and mythologized, between mental health and creativity. A highly recommended read.
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The first commercial license for Hydrokinetic...
What could be more dependable than the tides? They sweep in and out once or twice a day, depending on the location, and you can find their precise timing and height in any newspaper in America. Or tide app, for the tech-savvy mariner.
For decades, cutting-edge renewable energy companies have been experimenting with the best ways to tap the massive power of tides and waves, and now it looks...
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The myth of the eight-hour sleep
We often worry about lying awake in the middle of the night - but it could be good for you. A growing body of evidence from both science and history suggests that the eight-hour sleep may be unnatural.
In the early 1990s, psychiatrist Thomas Wehr conducted an experiment in which a group of people were plunged into darkness for 14 hours every day for a month.
It took some time for their sleep...
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The Georgia Guidestones
(MNN posted this without explanation and I know too much American folklore.)
These stones are a multilingual monument of New Age philosophy, built in 1980. The slabs are gigantic (several tons) and arranged to:
Support a 25,000 pound capstone
Tracks the sun’s east-west migration
Allows a viewer to view the sunrise through the “mail slot” in the center on every equinox or...
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Transvaginal Ultrasounds ARE ALREADY HAPPENING
keepyourboehneroutofmyuterus:
I keep wanting to scream, “TRANSVAGINAL ULTRASOUNDS ARE ALREADY HAPPENING RIGHT NOW TODAY IN TEXAS!!!!”
Texas has THREE times as many people as Virginia AND they already have mandatory transvaginal ultrasounds before abortions (I also have no hard data but I’m going to guess that Texas probably also has a much larger poor population and a higher percentage of...
“It sort of goes without saying”
– a mechanical engineer explains the flaw in his voice-activated motorbike
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Imperial Chill's first ever TMI Tuesday! →
Any takers?
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Dolphins are 'people' say scientists
abaldwin360:
Dolphins deserve to be treated as non-human “persons” whose rights to life and liberty should be respected, scientists meeting in Canada have been told.
A small group of experts in philosophy, conservation and dolphin behaviour were canvassing support for a “Declaration of Rights for Cetaceans”.
They believe dolphins - and their whale cousins - are sufficiently intelligent and...
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The Decline and Fall of Parental Authority... →
via Psychotherapy Networker:
American parents today face a perfect storm of cultural and social circumstances that undermine the very foundations of parental authority. In response, mothers and fathers are beginning to see therapists as irrelevant and to challenge the entire social, educational, and economic context of childrearing. On a day long before the Occupy Wall Street Movement began, I...
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Mighty Mosquitoes: The Bug That Changed The World
500 BCE: Susruta, a Brahmin priest, deduces that mosquitoes are the carriers of malaria. No one listens.
323 BCE: Alexander the Great is felled by a lowly mosquito, dying of malaria at the age of 33.
410 CE: marauding Visigoths finish off Rome, which had been weakened by malarial outbreaks. Shortly afterward, the leader of the Visigoths Alaric dies of malaria himself.
1658 CE: Oliver Cromwell...
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“Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that...”
– Pablo Picasso (via azelie)
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What if the 'people' don't want democracy?... →
February 20th 2012 (Al-Jazeera English by Sarmila Bose)
Oxford, United Kingdom - A survey has revealed that the people of Libya may not be keen on democracy after all. The “Arab Spring” has been celebrated in the Western world as a struggle of democracy against dictatorship. Often the implicit assumption was that what the revolutionaries who were trying to overthrow their authoritarian...
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“Carl faced his death with unflagging courage & never sought refuge in...”
– Ann Druyan, widow of Carl Sagan.
Presidential Pets
historical-nonfiction:
John Quincy Adams had an alligator, and his wife kept silkworms
William Henry Harrison kept a billy goat and a Durham cow so he could have fresh milk at the White House
Martin Van Buren had a pair of tiger cubs given to him by the Sultan of Oman which Congress told him to send to the zoo
Zachary Taylor had a shortlived canary named Johnny Ty
Gerald Ford’s golden...
Might as well get this off my chest since I have 2...
Hi, my name is Zane. I’m a professional voice actor and amateur historian.
Imperial Chill & Passionately Apathetic used to be the same blog. I wound up splitting the two into a main and personal blog since all of my real life friends started unfollowing me because I got too political.
Now I almost exclusively use Passionately Apathetic and only post to Imperial Chill if I get a really...
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leftist-linguaphile replied to your post: I think only 4 people are online at this hour.
I wanna be FRENZ
I’m so bad at Spanish though. And I’m from San Antonio so there’s no excuse. Our friendship would be an endless guilt trip reminding me that I chose to study Japanese and have to deal with alphabets of pure evil.
Otherwise yes, good idea :)
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I think only 4 people are online at this hour.
We should be friends. I have GIFs!
I’m friendly!
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“The ever growing power of a soulless political bureaucracy which supervises and...”
– Rudolf Rocker (via rooftopsedge)
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helvetebrann replied to your chat: Me: *Tries to socialize with fellow tumblr…
Hey, my inbox is always open =)
Yes, I love that (and everything you post) but I’m CONFLICTED.
My favorite blogs/people here get away with posting one or two really quality posts with great political insight, then spending the rest of the day posting personal things and they somehow amass followers like...
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“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two...”
– John Adams (via anticapitalist)
philosophy-of-praxis:
Smoke more, argue less.
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How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant...
Full article here.
Every time you go shopping, you share intimate details about your consumption patterns with retailers. And many of those retailers are studying those details to figure out what you like, what you need, and which coupons are most likely to make you happy. Target, for example, has figured out how to data-mine its way into your womb, to figure out whether you have a baby on the...