controlled burning

Thoughty Thursday: Popping your mental corn, Oct 2-8, 2022

/ Melanie Marttila

It’s thoughty Thursday, and you know what that means: tomorrow’s Friday! Celebrate by getting your mental corn popping in time for the weekend 🙂

Sean Lahman and Kayla Canne report that Rochester to pay $12M to settle lawsuit filed by Daniel Prude family, largest civil rights settlement in city’s history. Democrat & Chronicle

Livia Gershon considers women leaders in Africa: the case of the Igbo. JSTOR Daily

Errin Haines: it’s almost 100 days since Dobbs. What has changed? 19th News

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha says able-bodied leftists cannot abandon disabled solidarity to “move on” from covid. Truthout

Hugo Bachega and James Fitzgerald: Russian troops forced out of Lyman in eastern Ukraine. BBC

Nine NATO members urge support for Ukraine after annexation. Associated Press

Hyung-Jin Kim, Kim Tong-Hyung and Mari Yamaguchi report that North Korea sends missiles soaring over Japan in escalation. Associated Press

Study is first to show role of genomic changes in specific brain cells in Alzheimer’s disease. University of Exeter

Mechanism used by metastatic cancer to infiltrate liver found. Osaka Metropolitan University

New route to evolution: how DNA from our mitochondria gets into our genome. University of Cambridge

Anne Cleary: what is déjà vu? Psychologists are exploring the creepy feeling of having lived through an experience before. The Conversation

Nostalgia, the gift that keeps getting rebooted. Khadija Mbowe

Clark Quinn: myth persistence (in learning design). Learnlets

Renee Dudley and Daniel Golden introduce us to the self-taught tech geniuses fighting cybercrime: ransomware hunters. The Guardian

Michael Sheetz reports that SpaceX launches Crew-5 mission for NASA, carrying astronauts to space station. CNBC

How to Build for Human Life on Mars | Melodie Yashar | TED

Ronan O’Connell takes us inside the Irish “hell caves” where Hallowe’en was born. National Geographic

Pacific Ocean set to make way for world’s next supercontinent … in 200 to 300 million years from now. Phys.org

Your city is full of fake buildings. Here’s why. Answer in Progress

Mélissa Godin introduces us to the women fighting fire with fire. Atmos

Aysha Khan says that plants by school playgrounds protect kids from road pollution. Next City

Scientists crack upcycling plastics to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, advancing a recent study. University of Illinois

Damian Carrington: wax worm saliva rapidly breaks down plastics. The Guardian

Eleanor Cummins takes us inside one of the world’s first human composting facilities. The Verge

Livia Gershon offers a natural history of dragons. JSTOR Daily

Talia Ogliore: study reports first evidence of social relationships between chimpanzees and gorillas. Washington University in St. Louis

Haley Weiss: dark extinction has scientists worried. Here’s what they’re doing about it. CNET

Nancy Darling explains why your dog likes to flirt with other people. Psychology Today

Thank you for visiting. I hope you took away something to inspire a future creative project.

Until next tipsday, be well and stay safe; be kind and stay strong. The world needs your stories!

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Sept 20-26, 2020

/ Melanie Marttila

It’s time to get your mental corn popping.

BLM and covid-19 sections precede more general links.

Tessa Duvall offers a fact-check on the Breonna Taylor case. USA Today

Dylan Lovan, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, and John Minchillo report on the two Louisville officers shot during the Breonna Taylor protests. Why? “The violence comes after prosecutors said two officers who fired their weapons at Taylor, a Black woman, were justified in using force to protect themselves after they faced gunfire from her boyfriend. The only charges were three counts of wanton endangerment against fired Officer Brett Hankison for shooting into a home next to Taylor’s with people inside.” AP News

Russell Contreras reveals how the story of the underground railroad to Mexico is gaining attention. Associated Press

Jacinda Townsend explains how the Green Book helped Black travellers navigate a segregated nation. Yes, this is from 2016. These conversations aren’t new. The Smithsonian Magazine

Sam Levine explains how Republicans gutted the biggest voting rights victory in recent history. Voter suppression/poll taxing in action. The Guardian

Mohammed Elnaiem revisits the death of South African activist Steve Biko. JSTOR Daily

Nicole Karlis reports that a covid vaccine may only last for a year based on the most recent findings. Salon

Olga Khazan: a failure of empathy led to 200,000 deaths. It has deep roots. The Atlantic

How losing your job changes you. SciShow Psych

Richard Herzog explains how Aztecs reacted to colonial pandemics. JSTOR Daily

Richard Wolf calls Justice Ginsberg a superhero who never quit as she returns to Supreme Court one final time. Ginsberg is the first woman to lie in state. USA Today

Jackson Katz: violence against women—it’s a men’s issue. This TED talk is from 2012. Have we made significant progress since? TEDxFiDiWomen 

Ruth Tam advises you to lift your head and lower your arms—you just might feel better. NPR

Meghan Keane explains how to say no, for the people pleaser who always says yes. NPR

Stephen E. Nash: what fire archaeology tells us about the bringing of the American West. Atlas Obscura

The truth about dog years. SciShow

Thieving pikas in the Rockies. Because pikas are CUTE! The Nature of Things | CBC

Sarah Miller Llana considers the Sudbury model: how one of the world’s major polluters went green. Christian Science Monitor

It’s probably not life on Venus … but it could be. SciShow Space

Thor Benson reveals project A119 and the time we almost nuked the moon. Wild. Digital Trends

Alex Sanz: NASA astronaut Kate Rubins intends to vote from the ISS. AP News

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you found something to inspire your next creative project.

This weekend I should be posting my next chapter update for September (!) Seriously, where has the time gone?

Until then, be well and stay safe, my writerly friends.