tragedyinpants's Comments | StumbleUpon.com

Animation

Where is the red (html5)

butchers...shop.com 1.4M

tragedyinpants:

Do you ever wonder if people are just testing to see how minimally rewarding a game has to be for people to continue playing it? And how does that compare to jobs that only pay minimum wage? And how many people are playing games like this to pass the time while they work jobs that only pay minimum wage?

Posted on Sep 5, 2011

Literature

Blue Fairy Book

virginia.edu 508K

tragedyinpants:

A 1889 collection of fairy tales, and the first of twelve in the series of colourful books. It makes for interesting reading whether you're interested in fairy tales or how storytellers reproduce and promote cultural beliefs through children's stories. So, I probably wouldn't read many of the stories directly to children because of the very racist messages some of them carry, nevermind the other dated language and how many children these days can't imagine why anyone would own an Encyclopedia or a time before cellular phones. Seeing as it can be equally disturbing to adults, consider yourself warned. Remember. this was the first time many of these stories were translated into English, and that even though the stories were collected from all over the world and intended for children, they reflect the worldview of a man living in England more than 120 years ago.

Speaking of which, I found the University of Virginia's Electronic Text Centre also holds the Red, Yellow, and Violet Fairy Books. The prefaces to the Yellow and Violet Books are especially interesting in how Lang describes his sources. For example, in defending his choice to use some existing European adaptations of stories rather than newly translated versions from abroad, Lang has this to say, "...in the Yellow Fairy Book, and the rest, are many tales by persons who are neither savages nor rustics, such as Madame D'Aulnoy and Herr Hans Christian Andersen. The Folk Lore Society, or its president, say that their tales are not so true as the rest, and should not be published with the rest. But we say that all the stories which are pleasant to read are quite true enough for us; so here they are, with pictures by Mr. Ford, and we do not think that either the pictures or the stories are likely to mislead children."

Posted on Jun 27, 2011

Sociology

When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?

smithsonianmag.com 15K

tragedyinpants:

It's amazing to think about how quickly fashion trends can turn into protected cultural norms. How many of our traditions date back to marketing campaigns?

Posted on Apr 21, 2011

Health

medicalforyou.com

medicalforyou.com 456K

tragedyinpants:

It almost seems gluttonous to read so many at once. They're like secrets and spells. we should whisper them in elevators and leave them in library books. ..I totally want to start leaving secrets around town now, only I don't really keep secrets so I guess I'll just stash these kitchen tips between bus seats and tape them to the walls in stairwells instead.

Posted on Mar 9, 2011

Psychology

Language Style Matching

utpsyc.org 1,079

tragedyinpants:

I haven't played around with it yet, but it's an interesting idea. The research article is here (pdf). I've only had time to glance at it so far, but the basic premise is that we change the way we talk to match the people we're talking to (not just content matching, but stylistically), and that degree to which our way of talking matches can predict the success of a relationship.. at least 3 or 6 months into a relationship.

Posted on Dec 20, 2010

Education

Playful Inventions and Explorations: What's to Be Learned...

youtube.com 30

tragedyinpants:

Playful Innovations and Explorations: What's to be learned from kids (Edith Ackermann)
This is exactly what I like about my work.

Posted on Aug 8, 2010

Research

albert mehrabian communications research

businessballs.com 259

tragedyinpants:

For the last 3 years I've made a point to ask every presenter who quotes those spoken word / non-verbal communication statistics (you know the ones I'm talking about) where those numbers come from. Psychology lectures, teaching instruction, literacy courses, communication and conflict resolution workshops, etc.. you name it, they all love to throw this idea out there but none of them have had any idea where, when or under what circumstances those numbers were arrived at..

Finally, here's some context.

Posted on Apr 26, 2010

Humor

Not Always Right: Funny & Stupid Customer Stories

notalwaysright.com 701K

tragedyinpants:

People are wonderfully strange. They'll surprise you in ways you never expected and scare you in ways you'll wish they hadn't.

I usually avoid the "people are stupid" sites, movies and such, but the stories ring true, and for the most part they don't seem mean-spirited. It's kind of like Kevin Smith's Clerks; it'd be entirely forgettable if you didn't remind you of people that you knew.

Posted on Mar 4, 2010

Substance Abuse

youtube.com

youtube.com 14

tragedyinpants:

This is a very nice video arguing against substance dualism (the idea that there are non-physical things at work in the world, and specifically in our heads). I think that I've already expressed my frustration over how the misguided idea of a mind-body split gets in the way of people's understanding of mental health, and the support that people receive for mental health problems. QualiaSoup gives a very succinct and coherent case against dualist explanations, and I recommend it to anyone who holds to the idea that the mind is separate from the body (or finds themselves in arguments with people like that).

I'd also recommend it to people who believe in spirits and gods, but if your faith is rooted in concepts like those, I imagine it would be uncomfortable.. which is not to say that we should only adhere to ideas that make us feel good. I'm just saying, they are connected, so consider yourself warned.

Also, I think whoever tagged this video as being about "substance abuse" is hilarious.

Seems to be offline right now.. there's one comment on QualiaSoup's page about a new version in the works, I'll keep a lookout.

Posted on Feb 26, 2010

Atheist/Agnostic

Skeptically Speaking

skeptica...king.com 399

tragedyinpants:

Very cool radio show from e-town. Maybe the only of its kind.

Call in. Question Everything.

Posted on Oct 4, 2009

Brain Disorders

Exploding head syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...

wikipedia.org 15K

tragedyinpants:

I always thought this was normal. I doesn't happen to me all the time, but stress + fatigue does sound like a reliable recipe. Or rather if my mind is very active and I'm physically exhausted, lots of times this will wake me up after I pass out. I'd describe the sound as noise. It's a little like if the volume on your tv was turned up really loud without you knowing, and then when you turn it on it scares you and you switch it back off as soon as you can. Sometimes it sounds more like static, other times a bit like a scream, but for the most part you don't have time to think about what it sounded like until it's passed and you're sitting upright in your bed, eyes wide open, wondering what's going on.

I suppose the bigger question is: why did I think that was normal?

Posted on Oct 2, 2009

Feminism

Hugo Schwyzer | Author, Speaker, Professor, Shattering Gender...

hugoschwyzer.net 579

tragedyinpants:

A very interesting blog with a surprising amount of interesting responses for and against his view of feminism (not that I saw any anti-feminism posts, but it is a very wide field of view in many ways). I found it especially engaging because his approach seems to invite discussion much more than many others I've read on the topic, and in general. He seems, from the handful of articles I've read so far, to be a very worthy model of tact and respect.

Posted on Sep 14, 2009

Books

When Books Could Change Your Life: Why What We Pore Over...

citypaper.com 146K

tragedyinpants:

I agree with a few ideas here, but most sections are so steeped in nostalgia that I couldn't help but think of a friend of mine, who, after a few drinks, used to gush about how the cartoons we grew up watching in the 80s were "The Best." The books that we read at important times in our lives become a part of who we are. It is not really dependent on what we read, so much as what we feel when we read it. The same is true of friends, family, pets, music, cigarette brands, and most everything else. We wouldn't want to abandon our treasured childhood stories any more than we would want to forget about our parents (for example).

All books, for better or worse, have the potential to change our lives as long as we are open to the experience. Unfortunately, once we think that we know exactly who we are and what we like, we're usually not willing to risk that identity. So it's hard to become totally immersed in books in the way that we did so casually when we were younger. Reading is a relationship. Some people just don't want to get involved and read with the same detached air that people summon up when they walk past the homeless.

Posted on Jan 31, 2009

Arts

The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism, By Jonathan Lethem...

harpers.org 170

tragedyinpants:

I really enjoyed reading this. So much so that I should probably apologize to all the people around me for dragging it into every conversation I've had this weekend. I found the discussion surrounding commons and public resources particularly resonant.

Posted on Jan 25, 2009

Women's Issues

Hurrah for tomboys!

guardian.co.uk 8,478

tragedyinpants:

Interesting read. Not the most critical of inquiries into gender, but it makes me want to read a lot more articles that are (so I'd count it as a positive reading experience).

It's an interesting issue. I think I've always thought of it as a rights issue, that people should be who they want to be, but it begs the question: why do people what to be who they want to be in the first place? You can easily get into a chicken vs egg type argument over the relationship between societal norms and genetic predisposition, so I won't even try to untangle that mess. There are no spokespeople for society or genes anyway, so instead I will only try to speak for myself.

I have almost always been surrounded by more women then men, and to an extent I imagine that's made me more comfortable with women than men. That said, I am usually less comfortable with "girly-girls" than whatever you want to call their opposites in the same way that I find it hard to identify with those ultra-masculine "man's man" men. So, it's not a hard stretch to figure that I'm biased towards people who think like me. Following from that, any argument from me that women should be allowed to be more like men could maybe to reduced to me just wanting women to be more like me, or worse, me wanting women to be more like men. I'd like to think it's not as base as that, but wanting to understand people is a pretty basic drive. If you're more like me, I can understand you easier. And, on the flip side of that, if I accept the identity of something you already understand (to a greater extent than my own personal idiosyncrasies) then I stand a better chance of being understood.

Whatever the case, sometimes I find myself offended by something that I view as being against women or woman's rights only to discover I am more offended than some women are. Part of the problem with my not identifying with "stereotypical" women (or women who are closer to that idea) is that I find it too easy to forget that the value a lot of people place on "traditional" gender roles is not necessarily irrational or misplaced. Some(times) girls like being girly, that doesn't automatically make them wrong or repressed. Just because I see myself as being anti-sexist doesn't make everyone who disagrees with me sexist or misguided, unfortunately I have to remind myself of that sometimes.

Another thing the article mentions is the idea that some things traditionally viewed as feminine could be better described as simply being human. It directly follows that all human behaviours are human and not sex or gender specific (or inhuman). I've thought a lot about this over the years. Traditions influence language, and language influences gender schema. I'm not sure how quickly you can androgenize an entire language, or if you would even want to. More importantly, marginalized groups almost inevitably "hijack" the language of the ruling class or "mainstream" society, so perhaps the meaning of words as they were coined is never as important as how they are being used by people at the group level. I'm getting into language vs thought / chicken vs egg territory now, so perhaps I'll move on.

And I'm getting away from me again, I don't know women better than I know myself, after all. So, what about my own gender identity? I am of the male sex and heterosexual, so for the most part it suits my interests to be known as a man. I do, however, try to dodge any more specific categorization than that. I get really defensive when people try to label me, or more to the point, if they decide they can expect something specific of me by virtue of a label. Again, returning to the problem of wanting to be understood but continually defying anyone's attempt to understand me in anything other than personal terms. I suppose that just makes me frustrating.

Posted on Dec 29, 2008

Comic Books

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

smbc-comics.com 106K

tragedyinpants:

Sometimes they are too wrong to laugh at without feeling like a bad person. Other times you can fool yourself into believing that you are actually still nice and are only empathizing with people who imagine horrible things and laugh.

Posted on Dec 24, 2008

Mental Health

Vida Loca Vonati

blogspot.com 1,476

tragedyinpants:

An honest account of living with bipolar disorder. Well written and compelling.

Posted on Dec 7, 2008

Mental Health

www.psychoexgirlfriend.com

scherle.com 892

tragedyinpants:

Not funny. This goes beyond betrayal. Nobody would appreciate having something like this made public. Yes, it is hard to deal with situations like this, but to offer it up as entertainment shows pure contempt and a severe lack of humanity. And then I found out the author eventually did take the site down and then someone else put it back up.

Posted on Dec 7, 2008

Learning Disorders

Living with ADD - Support for ADD / ADHD

livingwithadd.com 112K

tragedyinpants:

Well, it's okay. Too often the positive traits of ADHD are ignored, but I think this site romanticizes them to the point where it almost sounds like a super power. It's a good starting point anyway. I would recommend CHADD's site: help4adhd.org

Posted on Dec 7, 2008

Activism

Tar Sands Watch

tarsandswatch.org 1,534

tragedyinpants:

Important to know and relevant to everyone.

It is repeatedly portrayed as "only" effecting remote Native communities (if that) and otherwise powering the nation's economy. Even the CBC who is mandated to represent the views of all Canadians has chosen to use the industry friendly term "Oil Sands" and treats it primarily as a regional issue.

Assuming the ice roads hold, I'll be visiting these communities in February, but the information isn't as hard to access as that.

We are all downstream.

Posted on Nov 19, 2008