Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Good Reads and Information

An Australian television show showcased a comedy act in blackface, sparking a controversy that many didn’t understand. How can we explain that something is offensive when what we see as blatantly obvious isn’t to others?

Max Hirschberg rode a bike for two months to get to Nome, Alaska to join the Klondike gold rush in 1900. And you think you have a difficult commute. (via Metafiter)

8 Ingenious Ways Animals Outsmart Predators. Creativity comes when your life depends on it! (via Gorilla Mask)

Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: NASA’s Lost Female Astronauts. They were physically better qualified than the male astronauts, but politically never had a chance. (via Boing Boing)

Scans of the human brain show how neurons fire in different patterns when we are asleep, drugged, experiencing seizures or headaches, and when the brain is damaged. (via the Presurfer)

Screenwriter John Cox posted a guest blog at Frankensteinia about his search for the site of the only location shot in the 1931 movie Frankenstein. The search led him to Malibou Lake and a serious case of deja vu. (via Metafilter)

Viewing one’s own body can reliably reduce the perception of pain. Maybe you shouldn’t close your eyes while getting a tattoo. Worth a try.

6 Assorted Animal Adventures. Fate leads some creatures to fame and/or fortune they never asked for.

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