September 2011
15 posts
6 tags
"Why does she stay with that jerk?" or, Some of... →
…For a long time, I just couldn’t understand this. We’d get the victim in a private room locked away from the abuser, and they’d sit there with bruises or wounds or even broken bones, in a safe place surrounded by people who wanted to help them, and they’d tell us, often through tears… “I fell down the stairs.” It drove me nuts. It made me ...
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Research: "Magic mushrooms" can induce lasting...
Psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms,” can make people more open in their feelings and aesthetic sensibilities, conferring on them a lasting personality change, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.
People who had mystic experiences while taking the mushrooms were more likely to show increases in a personality trait dubbed “openness,” which is related to...
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Research: "Pot clubs" (cannabis dispensaries) are...
Closing medical cannabis dispensaries in Los Angeles is associated with an increase in neighborhood crime, according to an unexpected new study released by the RAND Corporation. Researchers there looked at 21 days of crime reports for 600 LA dispensaries around the time the city ordered the clubs closed on June 7, 2010. The city blamed the clubs for nuisances and crime, but RAND study lead...
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What does "sustainability" mean, anyway?
From an article in the East Bay Express.
Chefs in the progressive Bay Area are, not surprisingly, keen on the concept of sustainability. But even they have differing opinions on what exactly it means and how to best employ it in their restaurants.
For Gather’s Sean Baker, it’s about “cooking with respect and care” and using “ingredients that were raised with...
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Rand Paul doesn't care if the gas company blows...
Tea Party conservative Sen. Rand Paul is blocking pipeline safety legislation intended to fix some of the problems that led to the rupture of a natural gas pipeline in San Bruno last year that destroyed a neighborhood and killed eight people.
Paul, a first-term Kentucky Republican whose father, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex. is running for president, is using his prerogative as a senator to stymie...
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What I need and want « Moonlit Lily →
This essay, written by and from the perspective of a person with autism, is worth reading if you or anybody in your life is anything other than 100% mainstream ablebodied neurotypical… which means, as far as I can tell, it applies to every last one of us.
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The insidious omnipresence of Disney
When my son was little, we didn’t have a TV and I didn’t take him to see Disney movies. He wasn’t prohibited from these things, but I just didn’t want them to have some huge influence on his nascent worldview. And the sheer shock and horror some people would express when they found this out just solidified my position. When people start thinking of some sort of...
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Research: Spending time in nature is good for us,...
From the British Psychological Society’s Research Digest blog.
Note, for those who don’t have an instinctive sense for metric temperature measurements (ahem), 2.5 degrees Celsius is 36.5 degrees Fahrenheit; 14.6 C is 58 F.
(Ottawa parkway and skyline)
People underestimate the psychological benefits of spending time in nature. That’s according to Elizabeth Nisbet...
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“The really frustrating thing about the “Save the boobies” campaign and similar...”
– Liz Fong - Google - Share if you oppose “Booberday,” the G meme of sharing… (via craftastrophies)
And the gent with XKCD gets it. Again.
(via lollandlass)
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“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a...”
– The New Republic
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A primer on privilege: what it is and what it... →
I want to talk about privilege today, because it’s fundamental to most modern discussions of racism. And sexism, and ableism, and lookism, and classism, and dot dot dot. And because I’ve seen some pretty odd definitions of privilege out there. The standard resource on privilege is White Privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. But I think that resource is clearly not working...
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The Doctor is In: Taking the Mystery Out of... →
For those who follow a plant-based diet, it’s not uncommon for friends and family to voice concern over a number of nutritional issues that aren’t grounded in fact. “Where will you get your protein?” or “You’ve got to drink milk to get calcium!” are comments often heard. In the same vein, when it’s learned that a vitamin B12 supplement is routinely recommended for vegetarians, and...
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The Quiet Theory of Influence
From zen habits.
…I’ve learned something that the screaming marketers will never tell you: instead of screaming, prefer quiet.
When everyone yells “Look at me!”, become quiet.
When others seek attention, turn your attention inward.
When everyone wants pageviews and sales, be valuable.
When others try to pull visitors to their sites, let people find you themselves.
When most blogs have...
