Creativity

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Feb 28-March 5, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

The days are getting longer. I must think on solar power 😉

Jessica Lahey explores how the focus on academic achievement in schools can lead to failure. The Atlantic.

No, honey. You can’t be anything you want to be, but that’s all right. The Washington Post.

The men of the Oscars humiliate brilliant costume designer, Jenny Beavan. Heather Mallick for The Toronto Star.

New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, bans “conversion therapy.” Several other states have already done so, but this barbaric practice needs to be abolished. Now. The American Psychiatric Association.

Monarch butterfly numbers are on the rise over winter. YAY! The Toronto Star.

These orphaned crows return to check in on their adoptive human family every year. UPI.

Why do dogs tilt their heads when we speak to them? Short answer: nobody knows for sure. Entertaining post, though. IFLS.

An ancestor of the domestic cat chose humans, not the other way around. Seriously? Hasn’t this always been the way with cats? Samme Chittum for Life with Cats.

This jaguar is blissing out!

 

Jill Suttie shares five ways nature can help you become kinder, happier, and more creative. Greater Good.

What’s the one thing you need to be truly happy? Read on and find out 😉 Inc.

Yes. This is a laundry commercial. #sharetheload

 

A photographer visited a lost, Mongolian tribe and took these amazing pictures. Shareably.

Online parish records will change the way we research genealogy. Irish Central.

Allison Meier shares fantastic images of holloways, roads that have been tunnelled into the earth over time. Atlas Oscura.

Medieval oaks found in Winston Churchill’s old back garden at Blenheim Palace. The Daily Mail Online.

Wales Online features 33 amazing castles in Wales. Though the article calls them Welsh castles, a kind reader pointed out to me that many of these castles were actually built by the English. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. Seriously cool.

Phil Plait explains leap days and how they work. Because astronomy. Slate.

Astronomers posit that the moon was created by a head on collision between Earth and a protoplanet. UCLA science and technology.

See you Saturday!

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Feb 21-27, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Gah. Can’t brain. Well, maybe a little. Little brain.

The fight to preserve the Cree language. The Walrus.

Building James Webb, the biggest, boldest, riskiest space telescope, yet. Daniel Clery for Science Magazine.

Sean Carroll talks about whether the universe had a beginning. Yes, we still don’t have definitive evidence. Slate.

Astronomers find another small, icy body beyond Pluto. Slate.

Listen to the otherworldly beauty of overtone singer, Natascha Nikeprevelic. Good.

Despite anti-vaxxer resistance, the Gardasil vaccine has already drastically cut HPV infections in young women. Slate.

This is something that might affect me personally. The Liberals are “unravelling” the Conservative’s plan to recoup savings from the public service’s sick benefits plan. Negotiations are ongoing. We’ll have to see if this has a real impact. The Ottawa Citizen.

The Dala girls wrote a new song!

 

The next Chapter will be up on Saturday.

Take care until then.

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Feb 14-20, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Feeling light headed again this week.

Anna Lovind: When will you be enough?

The opposite of rape culture is nurturance culture. Dating tips for the feminist man.

This revolutionary cancer therapy yields extraordinary results in human trials. When are some of these therapies going to make it to the public? IFLS.

Irish Archaeology shares photos of Ireland in the 1930s.

Vikings didn’t dress the way we thought. With the return of the History series Vikings, this past week, this article caught my attention. EurekAlert!

Hunting with wolves helped humans outsmart Neanderthals. The Guardian.

The BBC presents striking images of our solar system.

Rosetta’s comet is ‘fluffy.’ Phil Plait for Slate.

And that is your teeny tiny thoughty Thursday.

See you Saturday, for realsies, this time.

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Feb 7-13, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 1 Comment

It’s been a bit of a disturbing week, but there’s always hope for the future.

Last week marked the trial of Jian Gomeshi. Here are a few posts and articles that discuss the issues at the heart of the frenzy.

The judge will render sentence March 25, 2016.

Related and equally terrible: Zoë Quinn explains why she just dropped the harassment charges against the man who started GamerGate.

A neuroscience researcher shares four rituals that will make you happier. The Business Insider.

Canadian artist, Calvin Nicholls, creates beautiful sculptures from paper. The Bright Side.

Argentinean and Brazilian doctors investigate mosquito insecticide as a possible cause of micorcephaly. The Ecologist. Just to keep things balanced, a scientist friend provided me with a link to the original New England Journal of Medicine article on the Zika virus’s association with microcephaly.

Julia Roberts is Mother Nature.

 

Michael Shermer, founder of Skeptic Magazine, states improving animal rights improves the quality of human life. Big Think.

Phil Plait says that a small asteroid will definitely miss Earth on March 5th. Slate.

Uluru, as seen from space. Phil Plait for Slate.

Here’s the big astronomy news of the week: The laser interferometer gravitational-wave observatory (LIGO) sees gravitational waves for the first time ever as two black holes eat each other. Slate.

Big in a different way: Researchers have discovered a 300 mile wide crater under the Antarctic ice which could date back as far as the Permian-Triassic Extinction. Ohio State University Research News.

Priceless art discovered in a Paris apartment, abandoned since 1939. Faith Tap.

How two sisters and one murder inspired 500 songs. Atlas Obscura.

Lots of thought-worthy material here. I hope you find some inspiration for your creative endeavours.

See you Saturday for more CanCon 2015 reportage.

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Jan 31-Feb 6, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 1 Comment

I’ve been sick. Maybe that’s why I’m a little light-headed this week 😛

February 1 was St. Brigid’s Day, or, for the other pagans, Imbolc. Irish Central.

This is a great article on the Granny Women of Appalachia. Hub Pages.

I didn’t share the news last week, but Canada has school shootings, too. Wab Kinew writes about using our grief for good, after LaLoche. The Globe and Mail.

Celebrating 100 years of enfranchised women in Canada. The Toronto Star.

Brian Hiatt reviews David Bowie’s final years. The Rolling Stone.

Photographer Donal Maloney shares his photo essay of Ireland’s abandoned psychiatric hospitals. Irish Central.

BuzzFeed wonders what it would look like if male scientists were written about like female scientists.

I had no idea this was even a thing. Why the outcry (yes, outcry) about Susan Sarandon’s breasts is bullshit. Harriet Hall for Stylist.

Lady Gaga’s new release: Till it happens to you.

 

A BBC film crew captures deadly ‘brinicle’ in action.

This is cool. Bailey Henderson sculpts sea creatures from medieval maps. Hi-Fructose.

Live by these four rules if you want to be happier. Rachael Yahne for The Huffington Post.

Steven Page’s Surprise, surprise.

See you Saturday!

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Jan 24-30, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Popping your mental corn for . . . a couple of years now, anyway 😉

Walking helps us think. Ferris Jabr for The New Yorker.

Diversity at the Oscars matters. #OscarsSoWhite Cameron Bailey for The Globe and Mail.

I am not black. You are not white.

 

The bitter experience of residential schools translated through ballet: Going Home. CBC.

Steven Page shared his mental health struggles in Sudbury last Thursday night. The Northern Life.

You are not weak by Devin Sarges.

 

New Alzheimer’s treatment fully restores memory. Science Alert.

The memory capacity of the brain is ten times greater than previously thought. New Universe Daily.

Mental Floss lists ten legendary monsters of North America.

Plants communicate using a network of fungi. Uplift.

Trees have social networks. Another article on the same topic. The New York Times.

Traces of a 9000 year old civilization discovered in Lake Huron by University of Michigan researchers. Message to Eagle.

Lupus 4 is a dark cloud in space. Phil Plait examines the mysteries of this tentacular hole for Slate.

Lady Science, a new anthology, is helping to stamp out sexism in the sciences. Slate.

A buried ‘daytime hotel’ is rediscovered in all its Art Nouveau splendour. Messy Nessy Chic.

Roger Boisjoly, the engineer who tried to stop the Challenger launch, dies at the age of 73. The LA Times.

Mimi Matthews explores cat funerals in the Victorian era.

And that was Thoughty Thursday.

And guess what? I lied last Saturday when I said I’d be back with more convention reportage. It’s actually Next Chapter time! So, I’ll be back on Saturday with that.

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Jan 17-23, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 1 Comment

Oh noes! I’ve rediscovered YouTube and the videos have invaded . . .

Canada is named the second best country in the world. How Canadian 🙂 We’re excited about coming in second. Global News.

Some of our new Syrian friends enjoying tobogganing for the first time:

 

Peter Denton wonders, where have all the readers gone? The Globe and Mail.

Dear parents: Everything you want to know about your son or daughter’s university, but don’t. Michael Enright interviews Ron Srigley for The Sunday Edition on CBC.

Education is performance art. Penn & Teller share their thoughts in The Atlantic.

When Trent Hamm thinks of the times he’s been the happiest, he notices two common threads. The Business Insider.

The powerful benefit of exercise that’s rarely discussed. Guess I’d better get my ass in gear. Quartz.

Dinah Laprarie of NISA champions mental health in Sudbury. CBC.

Cyndi Roberts of The Elephant Journal shares seven steps to easing anxiety without a pill.

Anna Lovind finds her own way to divine guidance 😉

So now a new study says smoking pot doesn’t lower adolescent IQs. IFLS.

Watching a water bubble freeze (in Finland):

 

Space-X attempted another booster landing last Sunday. And then this happened. Phil Plait, Bad Astronomer, for Slate.

That weird star with the Jupiter-sized planet and the suspected . . . something else orbiting it? Well the more they learn about it the stranger things get. Slate.

A constellation has been named for David Bowie (though it’s not officially recognized yet). IFLS.

Check out this planetary alignment through February 20. IFLS.

Phil Plait features this alignment on his Bad Astronomy column too. Slate.

xkcd charts possible undiscovered planets.

Rick Mercer’s rant on anonymous comments:

 

Gypsy Vanner horses:

 

Ms Mr performs “Reckless.”

 

And that was your week’s edutainment.

Hope you enjoyed it.

See you on Saturday for more CanCon 2015 reportage.

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Jan 10-16, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

It was a terrible week, in some respects. First, we learned of the death of David Bowie, and only a few days later, of Alan Rickman. Both at the age of 69, and both of cancer. *shakes fist impotently at the powers that be*

Here are a few posts commemorating both men:

 

The Guardian offers some tips on how to be happy in the New Year.

How to exercise your empathic muscles. The Elephant Journal.

Physician, heal thyself! Why silence is the enemy for doctors who have depression. The New York Times.

IFLS shares Stephen Hawking’s advice for people who suffer from depression.

Thirty nine: a documentary by Tara Henley on CBC’s The Sunday Edition with Michael Enright.

Childhood trauma can result in adult illness. Aeon.

Feministing reports: lesbian families produce an abuse rate of 0%. Then a kind commenter shared this: lesbian mothers’ children. Food for thought, people. Who’s producing these studies and for what reason?

Doug Saunders explains how gun ownership became a ‘right’ in the United States, and why it’s not. The Globe and Mail.

Bonus: Tori Amos’s cover of the Beatles’ “Happiness is a warm gun.”

 

We had another two earthquakes in the Sudbury area last week. I didn’t feel them, but that makes quite a few in the last couple of years. Is this some kind of message? The Northern Life.

Hootsuite’s CEO got clever and came up with this $25 standing desk solution. Vancouver is Awesome.

Check out this beautiful, underground kingdom. Bright Side.

A 600 million year old mutation is responsible for . . . us (!) The Washington Post.

Scientists believe they’ve found the first fossil bed from the dinosaur extinction. IFLS.

Mapping the ocean floors with gravity. Phil Plait for Slate.

Ice crystals cause this optical phenomenon and ‘draw’ a map of a city in the sky. Slate.

Open Culture brings back the animated Bayeux Tapestry. It’s really something special.

Please, cuddle the cat! It’ll make you feel better.

 

Quite the thoughty week, if I do say so myself 😉

See you on Saturday for more CanCon 2015 reportage.

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Jan 3-9, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 1 Comment

Aaaannnd, we’re back 🙂

This is cool: National Park passes will be free in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday 🙂 The Edmonton Journal.

And this is weird: Dr. Michael Persinger has been banned from teaching the Introduction to Psychology course. CBC.

Linda Carroll is a life coach who has panic attacks. Here’s what she wishes more people knew. Body Mind Green.

Fifteen things you should know about people who have concealed anxiety. Thought Catalog.

Sleeping with weighted blankets helps insomnia and anxiety. Life Hack.

Is depression a kind of allergic reaction? Caroline Williams for The Guardian.

How to help someone with depression. Ink and Feet.

Clara Hughes opens up about Olympic success and her struggle with depression. CBC.

Some antidepressants cause weight gain, and not a little weight, either. Read this article about Amy Willans’ battle against hunger and fat shaming. The Globe and Mail.

Former neurosurgeon (and writer friend), Swati Chavda, shares her experience with burnout.

They say you have to get out of your comfort zone. Here’s why: Sixteen uncomfortable feelings that mean you’re on the right path. The Unbounded Spirit.

The myth of learning styles persists (and is still being taught). Quartz.

Neanderthal DNA helps resist disease, but gives you allergies. Yay? The LA Times.

The seventh row of the periodic table is completed with the discovery of four new elements. IFLS.

No, Apophis still won’t hit Earth in 2036. Phil Plait, Bad Astronomer, for Slate.

When worlds elide. Phil Plait. Slate.

The Dawn spacecraft gets up close and personal with Ceres. Phil Plait. Slate.

IFLS offers their guide to the best meteor showers of 2016.

Richard Feynman: Why science enhances the appreciation of beauty.

 

Artist creates an awesome image of the universe. IFLS.

Koko is one smart gorilla. IFLS.

This snowy owl is photogenic. CBC.

Michio Kaku and Noam Chomsky pwn conspiracy theorists. Open Culture.

And that was Thoughty Thursday, folks. See you Saturday!

Thoughty Thursday

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, Dec 27, 2015-Jan 2, 2016

/ Melanie Marttila / 2 Comments

Just a wee bit of thoughty today. Guess I wasn’t quite ready to let go of the holidays 😦

The weird science hidden in Canadian money:

 

Visit the subterranean cisterns of Victorian England. Beautiful abandoned places. Atlas Obscura.

Perihelion 2016. Phil Plait, Bad Astronomer, for Slate.

Researchers create a genetic map of the British Isles. Absolutely fascinating. Medievalists.

Holy calamari! This giant squid (just a baby at 12 feet) hung around for a photo op in Japan. The Washington Post.

The tiny hydra may be immortal. Live Science.

I hope there’s something in there that will tickle your fancy.

See you on the weekend!

Thoughty Thursday