Author Archives: lydias

Here is this week’s list of blog posts and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

i09 Needs Your Mail to Save the World. Now this is a clever idea. Rob Bricken wants to answer your questions about (post) apocalypse living. Whether you’re looking for a book recommendation, want to imagine a what if scenario or need advice on survival gear he’s your man. Go click on the link and send him a question!

From Positive Thinking is for Suckers:

For a civilization so fixated on achieving happiness, we seem remarkably incompetent at the task. One of the best-known general findings of the “science of happiness” has been the discovery that the countless advantages of modern life have done so little to lift our collective mood.

Why Today is Different via SeptemberMay. A heart-breaking essay on visiting a loved one living with Alzheimer’s disease in a nursing home. We watched my great-grandmother slowly slip away due to this disease. As a teenager I’d visit her at the nursing home with my mom, brothers and occasionally my grandfather (her son). By this point my great-grandmother no longer remembered any of her relatives so maybe those visits were more for us than for her. I hope I’m wrong about this, though, and that some part of her realized she was surrounded by love.

Mystery Picture. There’s something hidden in this picture. Do you see it?

From The Neurochemistry of Americans:

For the dopamine addict, life is a constant chase for that next hit. And America, composed of migrants attracted to that “reward,” is disproportionately endowed with such people, more than perhaps anywhere else on earth.

My friend Daphne Ashling Purpus recently published her first book, Dragon Riders. I’m so proud of her and would like encourage all of my readers who enjoy the fantasy genre to give this story a try.

If you buy it through the above link I’ll get a small percentage of the sale. Books at Amazon are the only affiliate links on this site, though. To any other readers out there who’ve been published lately, please let me know about it. I love promoting stuff written by people with whom I have personal connections.

What have you been reading?

Richard Haynes (Atheist Nexus) and Dr. Tom Arcaro (Elon University) are conducting a survey on how non-theists connect with likeminded people. The results won’t be strictly scientific but they will help Serving Atheists figure out how to better reach people with similar worldviews.

You don’t have to identify as an atheist to participate in this survey. From what I understand they’re casting a wide net and hope to hear from atheists, non-theists and people who check off the none box. If any of these sound like you then you qualify.

It took me about 10 minutes to complete.

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, quotes and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing—that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. – Richard Feynman

Love Your Enemies. On the surface the author of this post and I share little common. He’s a devout Mormon, I’m indifferent to the topic of religion. He has three wives and 24 children, I have one husband and no interest in motherhood. Yet I get the impression that our families would get along famously in person.

The Lying Disease. An article about how people who have Munchausen Syndrome deceive online friends.

From Why I Hate Neurons:

Circa 1998, I was a fat, sickly 14-year-old living in a cold, damp, foggy town on the outskirts of Manchester. I was fat because I ate too many potato crisps, and I was sickly, well, probably because I ate too many potato crisps (I kid).

Barred from Freedom: How Pretrial Detention Ruins Lives. It’s amazing to me that stuff like this still happens in 2012. I wonder what it will take to level the playing field?

A Word From Your Sponsor. A good reminder for the holiday season.

What would happen if a meteor hit the moon so hard it was knocked out of orbit? Can humanity survive all of the environmental chaos the moon’s new orbit brings? Life As We Knew It describes the new life of an ordinary teen and her family when the unthinkable happens. What I liked most about it was how loving and kind the mother is in this story. Too often young adult fiction assumes that adults are dumb or don’t have the best interests of their children at heart.

What have you been reading?

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, comic strips, letters and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

From a beautiful letter written by W.E.B. Du Bois to his 14-year old daughter:

Above all remember: your father loves you and believes in you and expects you to be a wonderful woman.

I am a Delight. If this comic strip was a t-shirt I’d be so excited to wear it.

From Why Do Some People Never Want to Get Married? 

It is not that marriage isn’t a wonderful thing for many people, but that the alternative life of choosing to pass on being in a long term committed relationship is very much misunderstood. Many people associate a lack of desire to marry or commit to a long term relationship with a fear of getting hurt, selfishness and/or shallowness, or eventual unfulfillment. Perhaps in some cases this is true, but many times this is a very false assessment.

What Happens to Women Denied Abortions? This is the First Scientific Study to Find Out. I’ve never been pregnant and have no idea what it’s like to walk in these women’s shoes. It will be interesting to see how both groups of women do over the long haul, though. Will there be such big differences between women who were denied abortions and those who were able to get them in 5, 10, 20 years?

Not At All Costs. A list of reasons to stay in a struggling relationship. No, I’m not having marriage problems! 🙂 I simply appreciate this blogger’s perspective as often articles about troubled romances focus on red flags. It’s refreshing to see the topic approached from a different point of view.

Intimate Portraits That Capture Emotion on the Faces and Figures of Animals. The title says it all.

Imagine if you discovered a parallel earth. In The Crack in Space humans are on the brink of disaster. The social and environmental conditions are so bad that seventy million people – most of whom are young, poor, and non-caucasian – have been cryogenically frozen. Some of the characters in this book want to send all of the frozen people to the presumably empty new earth. Others want to use it as a personal oasis.

And then we discover that this parallel earth is inhabited after all.

What have you been reading?

I have no idea how well this will work but as a good percentage of my readers come from the U.S. I thought I’d try something new.

Many of you are spending the day with family eating traditional Thanksgiving fare. Today this blog is your retreat from the festivities. Want to rant about that one relative who always wants to turn family reunions into political debates? Got a funny story about the kids or pets in your life? Do you love this simulation as much as I do?

Consider this an open thread. Let’s talk about anything and everything!