Learning

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, July 28-Aug 3, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

And now, it’s time to get your mental corn popping.

‘They have become the new religion’: Esther Perel says we expect too much from relationships. “Out in the open” with Piya Chattopadhyay on CBC.

Why the trend of surveilling strangers online proves we are horrible. This ties in to the post I shared by Kim Fahner last week and why we should resist objectifying others for our amusement or sense of superiority. “Spark” with Nora Young on CBC.

Allie Volpe explains why kids invent imaginary friends. Guess us writers just never grew up 😉 The Atlantic

SciShow Psych looks at the differences between men and women who are diagnosed with ADHD.

Ethan Siegal: today is not 24 hours long. Forbes

Dr. Becky observes the cartwheel galaxy. Space is weird

The BBC reports on the discovery of a clay tablet on which the oldest extract of Homer’s Odyssey has been found. Struggled for a while over whether to post this in Tipsday or here on Thoughty Thursday, but the latter won out, because archeology.

Chris Dawson: North Bay unrolls its first accessible beach mat. The Northern Life

Jeffery DelViscio explains how a bionic hand helps amputees “feel” again. Scientific American

Martin Giles wonders, is AI the next big climate change threat? We have no idea. MIT Technology Review

Massive ice melt caused by heatwave over Greenland. CBC

Kent German explores the relationship between redwoods, birds, and microphones in the quest to save an endangered species. CNET

SciShow makes a dog Q&A compilation 🙂

Because tardigrades! Chubby, misunderstood, and not immortal. Journey into the microcosmos

Thanks for visiting and I hope you found some inspirational fuel for your next (or current) creative project.

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

ThoughtyThursday2019

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, July 21-27, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

Since I’m a learning mutt, the stuff that interests me runs the gamut. I hope something here pops you mental corn. They did mine 🙂

This week, a couple of disturbing images were shared online about vulnerable populations in downtown Sudbury. I will not share them. My brave and thoughtful friend, Kim Fahner, was moved to post about it: a reflection on despair, mental health, and being mindful of one another when it’s not always popular to do so. Choose compassion people. There but for the grace of God go I. The Republic of Poetry

A group of young people on Manitoulin Island spent the last month crafting a birch bark canoe like their Anishnaabe ancestors. CBC’s “Up North” with Waubgeshig Rice.

Marina Koren tells the story of JoAnn Morgan, the Apollo engineer who almost want allowed in the control room. The Atlantic

It’s okay to be smart tries to figure out why we haven’t found evidence of other technological civilizations in the galaxy yet.

Physics Girl follows up with how we’re looking for life within our solar system.

Marjan Yazdi invites us to learn about the ancient art of henna-making in modern-day Iran. Ozy

Bob Holmes reveals how archaeologists study the common peoples of the past. Knowledgeable

SciShow Psych looks at the sunk cost fallacy.

Neville Ellis considers hope and mourning in the Anthropocene: understanding ecological grief. The Conversation

It’s okay to be smart considers the wood wide web.

Thank you for stopping by. This weekend, I’ll be composing my next chapter update for July. You’re welcome back if you want to find out what I’ve been up to.

Until then, be well!

ThoughtyThursday2019

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, July 14-20, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

It’s time to get your mental corn popping. Let’s get started with some lunacy in honour of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing 🙂

Alexandra Witze says these young scientists will shape moon research for the next 50 years. Nature

Eli Glasner talks to astronauts about which movies have “the right stuff.” CBC

Proof that Sudbury was mentioned on the moon. We live up here

Nicole Mortillaro: Sudbury was a stand-in for the moon and other, little-known (Canadian) things about the Apollo program. CBC

Veritasium looks at why astronauts also trained at a nuclear test site.

Molly Hennessy-Fiske explains how the women of NASA made their mark on the space program. LA Times

And … from Mary Robinette Kowal: to make it to the moon, women have to escape Earth’s gender bias. The New York Times

Alexander Rose wants to make something that lasts 10,000 years. BBC

Mark Gollom report on how Zoe the police dog sniffed out two missing girls in Algonquin Park. CBC

Laura Staugaitis shares the shadowed beauty of DAKU’s “Theory of Time” street installation. This is Colossal

Viktorija Gabulaité and Jonas Grinevičius introduce us to Australia, AKA, the land of nope. Bored Panda

Thank you for taking the time to visit, and I hope you found some inspiration for your next creative project (or a current one).

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

ThoughtyThursday2019

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, July 7-13, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

And, once again, it’s time to get your mental corn popping!

Michele Adelman reports on how Ford cuts have unleashed a crisis of conservation. Now Toronto

Physics Girl visits the first gravitational wave detector—LIGO. Stellar

SciShow Space looks at how a tank of water could change physics forever (AKA looking for evidence of a GUT).

Robin McKie: everyone’s going back to the moon. But why? The Guardian

Anne Collins Goodyear: long before Armstrong and Aldrin, artists were stoking dreams of space travel. The Conversation

The secret language of trees – Camille Defrenne and Suzanne Simard. Ted.ed

Erin Biba says, in the real world, Simba’s mom would run the pride. National Geographic

Sara Barnes: photographer spends years taking poignant portraits of animals on the brink of extinction. Beautiful. My Modern Met

And that was thoughty Thursday. I hope you found something to spark your next great work 🙂

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

ThoughtyThursday2019

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, June 30-July 6, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

It’s time to get your mental corn popping 🙂

Sabrina Imbler covers the forgotten trans history of the wild west for Atlas Obscura.

Nicole Cliffe interviews Alanis Morissette on being pregnant at 45, childbirth, post-partum depression, and #metoo. You might be surprised, but I like Alanis Morissette. I’ve been a fan since she was on “You can’t do that on television.” I’ve only really liked her music since Jagged Little Pill, but, ya know, I was never into the pop princesses. And Alanis wasn’t either. She didn’t want to follow that path. I’m glad she didn’t. Self

SciShow Psych explores whether you can learn emotional intelligence.

Kris Newby recounts one family’s journey to a diagnosis of Lyme disease. It felt like the flu. It took ten doctors, a year, and $60,000 to find out the truth. Vox

It’s okay to be smart looks at what it takes to create a world-sized telescope to see a black hole.

This is just something cool: ceramic skulls for your fire pit or fireplace. Can You Actually

Michael Greshko reports that these capuchin monkeys are 3,000 years into their own “stone age.” National Geographic

The White Wolf Pack shares a sweet video of raven courtship. Have I ever told you that corvids rock my world?

Haley Weiss: dogs’ eyes have changed since humans befriended them. It might be argued that dogs domesticated us 😉 The Atlantic

Thanks for stopping by.

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

ThoughtyThursday2019

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, June 23-29, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

Happy Independence Day to my friends south of the border! Take some time to feed your brain and get your mental corn popping!

IndependenceDay

Robin Hammond presents Stonewall at 50: stories of resistance and resilience. National Geographic

Mia Jensen interviews Cathy Mulroy about her career as a woman miner and her upcoming memoir. The Sudbury Star

Ahem. Yeah, I shared one of the cited articles (the BBC one) a couple of weeks ago. Here is the awesome debunking of that study on how technology influences the human skeleton and all the reportage it received. I am duly reminded that correlation is not causation. Thank you, SciShow. Seriously.

Simon Makin: better memory through electrical brain ripples. Scientific American

SciShow Psych discovers that alcohol may enhance your creativity in some respects, but not others.

Joyce Cohen: for those with hearing impairments, restaurant noise isn’t just an irritation. It’s discrimination. The Washington Post

Brene Brown talks to Oprah Winfrey about the six types of people who don’t deserve to hold space for you.

Jill Paider lists 20 sublime retreats you need to visit for creative inspiration. Dwell

Bryan Bender: a new moon race is on. Is China already ahead? Politico

SciShow answers the question, what makes soft things soft?

Dr. Suzanne Hoffmann and Professor Manfred Gahr have discovered that the brains of birds synchronize when they sing together. How did the do it? With transmitters weighing 1 gram that recorded the brain waves of the birds. Max Planck Gesellschaft

Katarzyna Nowak reveals the daunting task of wildlife crimefighters in the Alaska-Yukon wilderness. National Geographic

John Nova Lomax reports on the flight of the Texas fireflies. Texas Monthly

And that was thoughty Thursday.

This weekend, I’ll be assembling my next chapter update for June 2019. Until then, be well!

ThoughtyThursday2019

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, June 16-22, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

Here we are with some inspirational, research-y goodness to get your mental corn popping!

Lindsay Holiday reviews the lives and reigns of the gay kings and queen of England.

Anna Silman: every girl I knew was on it. Why some women are questioning hormonal birth control. I stopped birth control in my mid twenties because it was messing with my mental health. My spouse could see it clearly. The few times I’ve had to use it since, usually for some form of menstrual intervention, I’ve turned into a basket case. So support women listening to their own bodies and minds. The Cut

Olga Khazan explores a breakthrough in the mystery of why women get so many autoimmune diseases. The point was made by a commenter, however, that many of these autoimmune diseases develop before puberty. Can they explain that? The Atlantic

Anna Bianca Roach: her death made headlines. We should learn from her life, instead. The Washington Post

Karen Russell writes a letter of recommendation about superstitions. The New York Times Magazine

Open Culture reveals that Leonardo da Vinci’s huge notebook collections, the Forster Codex, are now digitized in high resolution so you can explore them online.

Ryan F. Mandelbaum reports on a Norwegian town that wants to abolish time. Gizmodo

Meilan Solly reports that a perfectly preserved, 32,000-year-old wolf head was found in Siberian permafrost, and what wildlife biologists are learning from it. The Smithsonian Magazine

Nathan Rott: going “zero carbon” is all the rage but will it stop climate change? NPR

Michael Greshko wonders, what is the summer solstice? National Geographic

Maria Popova reveals the mesmerizing microscopy of trees—they look like lovely crochet patterns! BrainPickings

Chris R. Morgan says, the best streaming service is the National Film Board of Canada 🙂 The Outline

SciShow looks at the origin of butts 🙂

Kaitlyn Schwalje reports that we finally have the answer to how many squirrels there are in NYC’s Central Park. But who was asking the question? National Geographic

Joe paints butterfly wings with CRISPR. It’s okay to be smart

And that was thoughty Thursday.

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

ThoughtyThursday2019

Tipsday: Writerly Goodness found on the interwebz, June 16-22, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

A nice, plump bunch of juicy informal writerly learnings. Yes. I have fresh strawberries on the brain. I drool watching them ripen in the garden!

Anthea Lawson Sharp (who writes romance as Anthea Lawson and Fantasy as Anthea Sharp) talks about the craft of short fiction. Later in the week, Margie Lawson writes about the power of silence on the page. Writers in the Storm

Vaughn Roycroft shares a father’s legacy. Sonja Yoerg: writing characters with personality using Myers-Briggs. Erika Liodice asks, are you a student? Resounding YES here 🙂 Writer Unboxed

K.M. Weiland makes the final instalment in her Dos and Don’ts of Storytelling According to Marvel series: five ways to earn your audience’s loyalty. Helping Writers Become Authors

Julia Roberts says, writer’s block is a gift (and explains why). Then, H.R. D’Costa shares five ways to ensure readers don’t abandon your book. Jane Friedman

Lisa Lowe Stauffer stops by Fiction University. Jamie Fraser eats an apple: using objects to inject character and world building into dialogue. Later in the week, Janice Hardy explains what setup in a novel actually means and then follows that up with four steps to establish the beginning of your novel.

Chris Winkle makes the next instalment in her goal-oriented storytelling series: tension. Writers Helping Writers

Jenna Moreci offers her definitions of active and passive characters and her tips for writing active characters.

Interestingly, Alexa Donne also expounds on character agency and growth. A theme?

Nathan Bransford explains how to work with a literary agent on edits.

Emily Wenstrom advises what to do when your social media growth stagnates. Here’s my latest speculations column: what psychology and neuroscience contribute to your stories. DIY MFA

Chris Winkle extracts some lessons from the writing of The Name of the Wind. Then, Oren Ashkenazi considers building democracy in your fantasy world. Mythcreants

Tale Foundry introduces us to eight of Sir Terry Pratchett’s clever(est) characters.

Roz Morris shares the “under-arrest” test for ensuring a satisfying ending. Nail Your Novel

CD Covington thinks the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is good fiction but bad science. Because language. Tor.com

Lynn Neary and Patrick Jarenwattananon celebrate Joy Harjo’s appointment as the first Native American US poet laureate. NPR

That should be enough to see you through until Thursday when I have a tidy batch of thoughty for you 🙂

Until then, be well, my writerly friends!

Tipsday2019

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, June 9-15, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

A good mix of inspirational, research-y, and learning stuff this week.

Patti Neighmond: can you reshape your brain’s response to pain? NPR

Zaria Gorvett explores how modern life is transforming the human skeleton. BBC

Mike MacEacheran looks at what unicorns mean to Scottish identity. BBC

Johny Pitts’ Afropean captures the experience of black women in Europe. Refinery29

Phoebe Wood debunks eight myths about bisexuals/pansexuals (and their representation) in honour of Pride Month.

Cara Anna reports that Botswana decriminalized gay sex in a landmark case. “More than two dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa have laws criminalizing gay sex, often holdovers from colonial times.” AP

ASAP Science wants to find out what would happen if we burned all our garbage.

Andrew Freedman writes a special report on our plastic planet. Axios

Rachel Love Nuwer considers the planet’s other imperiled elephants. In his book, Giants of the Monsoon Forest, Jacob Shell explores the ancient, mutually beneficial alliance between Asian elephants and their human neighbors. UnDark

Because tardigrades. Thomas Boothby, TED-Ed.

I hope something here got your mental corn popping.

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

ThoughtyThursday2019

Thoughty Thursday: Things that made me go hmmmm on the interwebz, June 2-8, 2019

/ Melanie Marttila

A fairly substantial batch of thoughty links to get your mental corn popping this week.

The BBC shares the latest in the Sudan crisis: the African Union suspends Sudan’s membership.

Richard Nieva reports that YouTube will ban supremacist and hoax videos in tougher hate speech policy. CNet

Denise Brodey: how one billion disabled people hit the business radar. Forbes

Liza Gross wonders, can efforts to bottle MDMA’s magic transform psychiatry? The Verge

Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall say that work-life balance is a myth. Here’s what they recommend instead. Time

Knvul Sheikh: creative types reserve a special corner of the brain for dreaming big. Scientific American

Matt Reynolds: the natural genius of ants is helping us build better algorithms. Wired

Verge Science tries to decipher ratspeak with DeepSqueak.

Robert Macfarlane takes us into the invisible city beneath Paris. The New Yorker

Franchesca Street takes us on a tour of abandoned sacred places around the world. CNN

The BBC reports on the long-lost Lewis Chessman found in Edinburgh family’s drawer.

Mara Johnson-Groh looks at how art advances astronomy. UnDark

SciShow Space news introduces us to the forbidden planet and new ways to produce oxygen in space.

Andrew Zaleski: urban forests are dying, but Baltimore shows us how to bring them back. Popular Science

Emma Stevens sings “Blackbird” in Mi’kmaq (yes, even Sir Paul himself made a thing about this performance).

Thanks for stopping by and, until next tipsday, be well, be kind, and stay strong. The world needs your stories!

ThoughtyThursday2019